Issues in the Auror Office
by TransfiguredToad
Summary: Ginny Weasley has moved house and started a new job in twenty four hours, and both have brought her close to Harry Potter. At home, he's Harry, her mate, but at work, he's her boss - and fraternising within teams is forbidden. But she's falling for him, and he's falling for her. What are two aurors in love to do? A Harry Never Went to Hogwarts story. H/G.
1. Chapter 1

Ginny Weasley closed the door to her flat, depositing her final bag from her shoulder with a groan. Reaching up to rub her shoulder, she leaned her head back against the birch door, rolling it against the eyehole which rubbed against her loose hair. Bringing her bags up had been a long process, due to the slow-going lift and the general weight of her belongings. She owned too many books and not enough pillows.

Looking around her flat, Ginny smiled ever so slightly. Though the flat was empty, she could see how beautiful it could be, how Ginny's it could be. The floors were light wood and the walls were white. An electric fireplace was the indicator that it was a living room, which led to a tiled-floor kitchen, all white. It was far more modern than the Burrow. While Ginny did not mind the relatively organised vintage chaos of her childhood home, she had wanted something different. And this was as different as it got.

Ginny pushed herself away from her door and glanced at the many bags which clustered beside the door. Her flat was not huge - essentially just a living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom - but it was hers. For the first time, it was fully hers. No family, no academy roommates who left washing up to go mouldy and didn't ever clean the bathroom. All hers, and in time it would look like hers too.

After graduating from the Auror Academy at the end of July, Ginny had moved back into her parents' house immediately, which her mother had loved. However, all Ginny had wanted was to find a new flat, ideally in London, and get out of the smothering atmosphere that was her mother's disapproval of her career choice and her brother's jealousy that Ginny was doing what he had always dreamed of before he had managed it. When this flat had become available and had been at the top end of Ginny's price range, Ginny had signed up immediately, despite knowing that she had no furniture and no money to buy it with, until she got paid. She could cope for a few weeks.

There was nothing in the fridge currently either, and, despite Ginny's moving out, she was still a Weasley, and she was starving. She rolled her neck, grabbed her keys from the small shelf by the door and headed over to her bags of clothes and books and general belongings. Emptying three bags swiftly, she stuffed three large plastic bags into another and searched for her purse.

Leaving the flat, Ginny headed for the supermarket that she had seen earlier. It was a different shop that Ginny had shopped at while she was at the Academy, in the countryside near Manchester, but she had mastered the muggle supermarket and, now, she was sure that she could adapt her skills to 'Tesco'.

And, when she left, over an hour later, she was ready to write a letter to her father about how well she was adapting to muggle things. The wizarding world generally lived in small villages, where they could find a butchers and a greengrocers and a bakers, or they used wizarding supply companies - specifically the pureblood families. Ginny found it far easier to use the supermarket, where they could find everything at once, and far cheaper than the suppliers.

As she arrived back at the apartment building, she glanced into the small communal area on the bottom floor and saw the back of a man's head, scruffy hair and a red t-shirt covering a nice pair of shoulders. Considering heading down afterwards, Ginny hurried over to call the lift.

In her flat, she stacked everything she had bought in the cupboards. She had spent her remaining money on all the store cupboard essentials that she lacked, as well as on the cheapest pan, wok and plates she could find. Boiling the kettle, Ginny grinned. Food made a home, not furniture. There had always been plenty of good food at the Burrow, even when they did not have everything that other homes had.

She made pasta with sauce and then grated a lot of cheese over the top. When she sat down on the floor, leaning against a wall, she realised that this was silly and that there was a perfectly good sofa and television downstairs that she could enjoy while she ate.

The man was still there when she arrived, biting her lip before striding in with as much confidence as she had. When she saw the TV, her eyebrows flew up her face at the realisation that quidditch was playing. "Hello," she said to the man who had not turned at her approach.

Immediately, he jumped up, wand out. Ginny snorted. "Not very muggle-conscious," she commented. He gave her a sheepish grin and reached to flatten his hair against his forehead, a move that made Ginny furrow her brow in confusion. Most men would ruffle their hair instead.

"Do you mind if I watch with you?" Ginny asked, nodding at the screen where the Arrows were playing Puddlemere. Ginny had forgotten that it was tonight and indeed that she would be able to watch it, due to the TV downstairs. As the Burrow was without a TV, Ginny had to satisfy herself with the wireless for most quidditch matches.

"Of course," the man said, grinning at her. He had a nice smile. It made his green eyes light up. He gestured to the sofa and sat back down himself. Ginny moved to the other side and snuggled into the pillow behind her. It was a sofa not unlike those at the Burrow: it had been sat on enough times that it was comfortable, rather than the stiff ones that posh homes usually had. She supposed it was to be expected in a communal living area.

"Your food smells good," the man said, nodding at the bowl. Ginny grinned and nodded, stirring the pasta, sauce and cheese together with her fork. It did smell good.

When, a few minutes later, the commentators announced a short injury and sub break, the man said, "When did you move in?", turning his attractive face towards her. Ginny swallowed her food.

"Just this afternoon," she told him. "I start a new job tomorrow in London."

"Wow, cutting it fine," the man said. "My name is Harry, by the way."

Ginny smiled and took his extended hand, awkwardly shaking it side by side. "Ginny." She cleared her throat. "Are you supporting Puddlemere or the Arrows?"

"Puddlemere," Harry said with an emphatic nod that made Ginny laugh. "Who are you?"

"Harpies when they're playing, but I'll support the Arrows if you're Puddlemere," she said with a teasing tone. Harry laughed, a pleasant sound that made Ginny like him.

"Do you play?" Harry asked as the players came back out from their break, taking the brooms and waiting for the whistle of the referee. The Arrows beater had been subbed and Ginny thought that that was what caused Harry's quick smirk. Carla Rajowski was one of the best beaters in the league and losing her was a huge blow to the already losing Arrows.

Ginny nodded. "I played at Hogwarts and then was part of the Manchester Saturday league for the past few years. I play chaser."

Harry gave her an impressed look. "I play seeker in a Sunday league with work."

"You any good?" Ginny asked. Harry grinned at her.

"Some have said that I am the best in the league."

"How big's the league?" Ginny asked with a taunting grin. Harry narrowed his eyes at her but his grin belied his irritation. "My sister-in-law plays for the Magpies."

Harry coughed as he choked in surprise, making Ginny cackle. "For the Magpies? Who is your sister-in-law?" he demanded.

"Angelina Johnson-Weasley," Ginny supplied. "I played with her at Hogwarts."

Harry whistled lowly. "She's good. You must have been a Gryffindor."

Ginny raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you a bit of a fan?" she teased. Harry scoffed but the red rising on his cheeks said differently, making Ginny grin.

The conversation flowed naturally for the next two hours or so, though it was interrupted quite frequently by Harry's cheers for Puddlemere. It grew later and later, until, eventually, it was eleven o'clock and Harry cursed at the sight of his watch. "I'm really sorry but I'd better go to bed. I have to be in work early tomorrow," Harry said and he truly did sound sorry.

Ginny's stomach squirmed at the thought. She met his eyes and then looked away. She should probably go to bed too. It was her first day tomorrow and she should at least try and make a good impression. Briefly, Ginny wondered what Harry did as a job.

Harry stood and gave her another sad look and a further melancholy look at the television, where his favourite team were leading by 130 points, not enough to win if the Arrows caught the snitch. He had taken one step away from the sofa when he turned around, to find Ginny staring at his retreating form.

"I," he started before shaking his head and taking a step back towards Ginny. He leaned down and she leaned her head up towards him automatically, her lips quirking as he covered them with his own, pulling her up so that they were more comfortable.

Ginny swung her arms around his neck. Perhaps she should have pulled him down. It would have likely been more comfortable kissing on the sofa. He pulled away before she did and Ginny opened her eyes to find his gleaming with lust, his pupils large. Ginny wondered if it was reflected in her own. "I've been wanting to do that all night," Ginny whispered. Harry grinned.

"Same," he agreed before kissing her again.

Ginny did manage to drag them back down onto the sofa and it was soon far past their bedtimes, but neither cared.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Ginny woke up in Harry's bed, where they had moved once the Quidditch match was over. It was intensely comfortable and, if Ginny wasn't so excited about starting her new job, it would have been difficult to leave the bed. She rolled over, expecting to see Harry there, and furrowed her brow when he wasn't. She pulled herself out of bed and put on his dressing gown, entering into the main apartment area. She saw a note on the kitchen counter and sighed.

 _Ginny –_

 _I had to go into work early today, but I didn't want to wake you up. You looked too beautiful asleep in my bed. I really want to see you again. My phone number is 07692944195. Call me so that I can have your number too._

 _See you soon,_

 _Harry_

 _xx_

Ginny tucked the note into the pocket of the dressing gown and grabbed her clothes from the previous day. She then left the apartment and went back to her own room, ready to start her new job.

 **XXX**

Harry Potter sat with the twelve other Auror Department team leaders and Gawain Robards, the head of the Auror Office. "Potter," Robards said, after finishing speaking to Reggie Tate, "There's a new case involving the illegal trade of potions. I want you to take it. I'd normally give it to Jennings, but his team are swamped at the moment and you solved that case on Friday. I've got all the details here," Robards said, giving Harry a few pieces of paper. "There's been deaths, over ten, all linked to the London potions, drugs and narcotics ring. There's a list from St Mungo's there on the amount of cases they've had from PDN this month alone. It's a dangerous business, Potter, and I want HPHPHP on it, mostly, but bring HPHPJR and HPHPDB in on it too, if you think that it's necessary. Just solve it," Robards said. Harry nodded curtly.

"You can go and do the department briefing now," the department head said. "Potter, here's the list of newbies. You make sure they go to the right departments," Robards said wearily. Harry nodded again and he walked out.

"You're looking perky today, Potter," Naomi Logan, head of youth, said as they walked from Robards' office to the Auror common room, where the briefing was held every Monday.

"Did somebody get _laid_ last night?" Lucy Sanders, the head of sexual harassment, asked with a teasing grin.

"Maybe," Harry returned with a wink.

"Ooh, who is she?" Lucy asked desperately.

"Is it that lawyer girl who was flirting with you last week?" the head of criminal justice, Nicola, asked, eyes wide.

"No," Harry said, rolling his eyes as they entered the room.

"Is she a witch?" another department head, Owen James, asked.

"Yeah," Harry replied, battling his way through the crowd.

"Is she fit?" Mike Allison asked desperately. Harry smirked.

"OKAY!" Harry shouted across the room. Everybody shut up. "Thank you, all, and welcome to the Auror New Year. I hope we have all recovered from our hangovers from Friday and are all ready to start again," Harry said with a warm smile. "We have fifty-six new cadets this year and I would like you all to welcome them now," Harry said, raising his hand and everybody started to clap. "Cheers. Other announcements are…" Harry said, trailing off. "Oh!" he remembered. "I know it's only September but names for the Christmas party need to be written down before the fifteenth if you want to come. It's twenty galleons for the night and you get a hotel room. Spouses are welcome, but no kids," Harry said with a grin. Everybody cheered and Harry laughed.

"Erm, Anna has something to say," Harry said, looking at another department head. She nodded.

"Witness care, guys," she started and the room groaned. "I know, I know and that's why I'm in charge of it…"

Harry tuned the rest of what Anna was saying out, as he took his phone out to check if Ginny had called yet. He frowned when he saw she hadn't. "Thanks, Anna," Harry said, seeing she had finished. "Now, I don't think there is anything else. SATR are sorting out the floo crime?" Harry checked and he saw Tracey Rufford, a sub-team leader, nod. "Excellent and OJLOED are still working with the computer people?" Another nod. "Brilliant. Okay, you lot can bugger off, except the new cadets. Gemma and Ben, you lead the HP briefing. I'll be there in a few," Harry said and the aurors began to filter out, leaving only the new cadets and the department heads there.

"Hello!" Harry said to the new aurors. "Welcome to being an Auror. We have a briefing every Monday morning as a full department. You are going to be assigned to a team. My team is called HP, because my name is Harry Potter," he explained, ignoring gasps. "In that team, you will be put into a sub-team. In my team, the sub-teams are HPHP, HPGE and HPBN. From those sub-teams, you are split into a further, smaller team. A sub-sub-team if you like. For example, I'll take the first name on the list.

"Thomas Ackley. You are in my team, Ben Norse's sub-team and Delilah Newman's sub-sub-team, so your team is called HPBNDN. Does that make sense?" Harry asked and people nodded. "Great. Now, I'm going to tell you the departments and their initials. If you hear those initials when I read out what team you're in, then go to that person and they will show you your sub-team and sub-sub-team.

"We have Monica Parks (MP), Michael Allison (MA), David Jennings (DJ), Nicola Roberts (NR), Anna McLaughlin (AM), Naomi Logan (NL), Owen James (OJ), Sam Allen (SA), Jeremy Hampton (JH), Francis Dixon (FD), Reginald Tate (RT), Lucy Sanders (LS) and myself, Harry Potter (HP). Right, let's start."

Harry read down the list, pointing out the team leaders as he read the team names. It took a long time, but he finally reached the end. "Ginny Weasley, HPHPHP," Harry said with a smile, recognising the name Ginny and looking up. The bottom fell out of his stomach when he saw her standing there, a nervous smile on her face. "Right, you lot can all leave too. You three, come with me," Harry said, smiling. "Matthew," he said, turning to another boy. "You're in Gemma Eckland's sub-team and also in Gemma's sub-sub-team. Gem!" Harry called to the red-haired woman talking to the aurors. She looked over. "She's your leader, Matthew, so once she's finished speaking, you go and speak to her. Thomas, as I said before, you're in Ben's sub-team and Delilah's sub-sub-team and Delilah!" Harry shouted and the tall brunette looked up. "That's Delilah. Now, Ginny, you're in my sub-team and my sub-sub-team, so you stick with me and I'll get you kitted up. If you just join the crowd there," he suggested to the three of them. They left. Ginny turned to look to him and Harry swallowed.

"Fuck," he muttered. He then plastered a smile to his face and went to join Gemma and Ben. "Okay, guys, I'm sure Gemma and Ben have rambled on about everything we've got to do this week, so I'm not gonna speak for too much longer. HPBNIW are on that double homicide. The witness is with Anna in witness care, so two of you with witness care training can go and interview her pronto. Oh, and, lastly, we've got that fun residential coming up for team building, so I'm sure we're all really excited. Now, leave," he said, shooing them away with his hand.

They laughed and Harry walked into the room that read HPHP. There were sofas and some food was laid out. Harry smiled, grabbing a sandwich. "Okay, HPHPHP come to our offices. We've got a new case," he said, shaking the papers Robards had given him.

Harry opened the door and watched them all file in. He sighed as he entered. "Everyone, this is Ginny. You can all make your introductions later. We have a new case. It's a PDN case – Potions, Drugs and Narcotics, that is. I know, I can feel your excitement. There's been ten deaths all linked to the London PDN ring. He wants it solved. I know you'd think RT'd be all over it but with those dodgy potions in Manchester, they just don't have the manpower. I want Maggie, Simon, Vicky and Cameron to look through the latest PDN cases and find out where the rings are operating most heavily. Lewis, Kenneth and Chloe, I need you to go and visit those lovely pubs and shops in Knockturn Alley and talk to the workers to see if they can give us any names. Robin, Ruby and Stacey, I have a list of the deaths. You're going to St. Mungo's to talk to the healers who did the post-mortems. Alex, I need you to go and get all the information from RT on the London PDN ring – big names, drugs most in use, historic deaths and murders. I'm going to kit Ginny up," Harry said with a smile.

 **XXX**

Ginny stood in the common room with one of her friends from Auror college, Natalie, and watched as the heads approached. "You finally moved out then?" Natalie asked and Ginny laughed, nodding.

"I'm so glad I'm away from the Burrow. I was so fed up of my mum's hints about me settling down and getting married instead of becoming an Auror. Like, what did she think I was going to do after Auror college? Not become an Auror? She's such a -"

Natalie never found out what Molly was, though, because, at that moment, the team leaders walked in and Harry Potter was at the lead. Ginny couldn't help but remember last night, when he had fucked her in an elevator on the way to his room. Ginny looked to the ground. Shit. Harry didn't see her, thankfully, but he would soon, surely.

"- who was flirting with you last week?" one of the team leaders with wide eyes asked Harry.

"No," Harry said, rolling his eyes. Ginny stared at him. He was so hot.

"Is she a witch?" another team leader asked. Ginny furrowed her brow. What were they talking about?

"Yeah," Harry replied, battling his way through the crowd.

"Is she fit?" yet another team leader asked. Harry smirked. Were they talking about Harry having slept her? Or somebody else?

"OKAY!" Harry shouted across the room. Everybody shut up. Ginny was in awe of the power he had. Everybody clearly liked him and Ginny couldn't imagine why not. "Thank you, all, and welcome to the Auror New Year. I hope we have all recovered from our hangovers from Friday and are all ready to start again," Harry said with a warm smile. "We have fifty-six new cadets this year and I would like you all to welcome them now," Harry said, raising his hand and everybody started to clap. "Cheers. Other announcements are…" Harry said, trailing off. "Oh!" he remembered. He was so damn cute…

"I know it's only September but names for the Christmas party need to be written down before the fifteenth if you want to come. It's twenty galleons for the night and you get a hotel room. Spouses are welcome, but no kids," Harry said with a grin. Everybody cheered and Harry laughed. Ginny imagined Harry taking her in a hotel room, fucking her speechless like he had last night.

"Erm, Anna has something to say," Harry said, looking at another team leader. She nodded and started to talk about witnesses or something. Ginny couldn't listen. She just stared at Harry, admiring him in his auror robes.

When Harry finally noticed Ginny, not long later, she watched his jaw drop and listened to him tell her she was in his sub-sub-team. Of course she was. Nothing was ever easy for Ginny.

Harry took her into another room and he made a little speech and then he took her through into a room where there was a conference room. Each person took a seat around the table, as if by rote, and Ginny took the remaining one. Harry sent her a warming smile. He spoke for a while and Ginny just stared at him, watching his face as his muscles moved.

"I'm going to kit Ginny up!" Harry said and Ginny heard her name and snapped out of it, jumping up and following Harry into a room. "Oh fuck," he swore when they entered. "I swear I didn't know," he told her desperately. Ginny sat down on a bench. The room was a changing room and Ginny imagined him taking her in there. She shook herself. She couldn't do this – he was her boss.

"I believe you, Harry," she whispered, "and I don't want to be that girl, the one that everyone gossips about because she's sleeping with the boss. I want to be an auror, Harry, but last night…" she trailed off and Harry smiled at her.

"I know," Harry agreed with a grim smile, "but, Ginny, I'm your boss, like your immediate boss. I mean, if you were in a different team or something, but you're in my team," he said desperately.

"I understand," she said sadly. "I just thought we really connected," she said, cursing herself for sounding absolutely clichéd.

"Me too," Harry sighed, sitting down on the changing room bench. Ginny sat down next to him. "I guess we'll have to just be friends," he said reluctantly. Ginny nodded, worrying her bottom lip. "I'd better get you kitted up," he said, dragging his eyes away from her. He stood up. "This is the changing room," he told her. "We all get changed in here, but, if you're not comfortable with getting changed publically, there are private changing rooms."

"Like all the guys and girls in the same room?" Ginny questioned with raised brows.

"Yeah," he said, thinking about all of those guys seeing Ginny practically naked. Ginny blew out a breath and Harry walked to the back of the room, where there were some shelves. "What size are you?" he asked.

"I'm an eight," she informed him. He nodded and pulled out size eight auror robes and a training kit. "Great," she said.

"You wear the auror robes over whatever you usually wear, which needs to be comfortable. Heels are only acceptable if they're those ones you can get now that you can change to be flats," he told her, looking down at her heels. Ginny nodded and demonstrated that, in fact, her heels were the stated example. "Perfect. We train as a team three times a week: Tuesday mornings, Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings. You use your training kit for that," he informed her. "Is there anything else you want to know?" he asked. She shook her head. "Okay, great. I'll introduce you to everyone," he said, looking into her eyes. She stared straight back into his.

"Okay," he said, exhaling with a smile. "Let me introduce you," he said, opening the door. He took her to a conference table, where four people were sat with a mound of files. "Guys!" he interrupted them and they looked up. "This is Ginny Weasley. She's an investigative action auror. Officially, she's your partner, Maggie, but, Ginny, we don't really work in partners, because we've got one of the biggest teams in the department, so we work in mini teams."

"Like sub-sub-sub-teams?" Ginny joked and was gratified when Harry chuckled, throwing her a smile.

"So, that's Maggie, then there's Simon, Vicky and Cameron. Vicky is our forensics expert. Maggie does witness care and Simon and Cameron are action aurors. Keep going, guys," Harry said, as he led Ginny over to another table, where three people were looking over St Mungo's records.

He made the same introductions, but with Lewis, Kenneth and Chloe, who were all investigative aurors. "Now, we have the lovely job of paperwork," he said, opening the door to his office. Upon entry, Ginny was shocked. There were five other doors in the office. "Oh," Harry said, noticing her looking at the doors. "I have one for my sub-sub-team, one for each of the sub-teams, so in Gemma and Ben's main areas, one in the main HP HQ, where we had the briefing, one in the department head's corridor and one at the Ministry of Magic. Crazy, huh?" Harry said, rolling his eyes. He sat down on the swivel chair behind his rather magnificent desk and Ginny sat on the other side.

"Okay, so we have to go through some questions," Harry said, "so that it's all on file. We've got all your basic details, of course, from training, but there's some more information we need. Firstly, family members," he started.

"What do you mean by family?"

"Erm, parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, children, partners," he told her.

"Ah," she said, smiling sheepishly. "Just names or…?"

"Occupation, too, ideally," Harry told her. Ginny nodded slowly.

"Okay, don't interrupt me. My parents are Molly and Arthur Weasley. My mum stays at home and my dad is head of muggle relations at the Ministry. I have six – five brothers. Bill – William – works as a Curse Breaker at the Ministry, although he used to work at Gringotts. Charlie – Charles – works at the Magical Zoo in Devon, specialising in dragons. Percy – Percival – works in the Minister's office. George owns a shop on Diagon Alley, which he opened with Fred, his twin, in 1996, but Fred died in the Final Battle. Ron – Ronald, that is – is in the Auror Academy, but he's definitely going to drop out at some point.

"I guess, then I have some sister-in-laws as well? Fleur is married to Bill and she is a liaison with the veela community, because she's a quarter-veela. Percy is married to Audrey, who is the Minister's Ethics Committee Head. George is married to Angelina, who is a chaser for the Harpies, and Ron is in a pretty serious relationship with Hermione Granger, who is a lawyer, specifically for being's rights.

"Bill and Fleur have two daughters – Victoire and Dominique, who are three and one respectively. Percy has Molly, who is two, and Audrey is pregnant. I have no children and no partner," she finished.

Harry finished scribbling all of that down. "Five brothers?" he said weakly. Ginny grinned.

"Yeah, five _older_ brothers," she confirmed.

"Do me a favour and don't tell them we've slept together," he said casually and Ginny shook her head with a laugh.

"Any more questions?" she checked.

"Yeah, a few," he said.

 **XXX**

That night, at eight o'clock, Ginny apparated into her apartment and huffed when she remembered she had no furniture. "Fourteen more days," Ginny said, referring to payday. She was tired but she had no bed. She guessed that she would just have to sleep on the sofa in the communal lounge. She grabbed a packet of crisps, thankful that they had gone to the pub after work and she'd bought a hot pot.

She wandered downstairs and found Harry in the communal lounge. She stood at the door for a moment, wondering whether it was worth the temptation. She shook herself. She needed somewhere to sleep.

"Come in," Harry told her and Ginny smiled, sitting down on the couch next to him. He was filling out some paperwork, probably for work.

"Early Quidditch match," Ginny noted, checking her watch. Normally, matches started at just past eleven.

"Euros qualifier," Harry said absently.

"You okay?" Ginny checked.

Harry sighed. "Four people in my department have told me they're retiring next August," he stated. Ginny gasped.

"From our team?"

"The overall team. Dawn Bennett, Jim Larson and Simon and Kenneth from our sub-sub-team. Dawn and Jim are both sub-sub-team leaders, so I'm trying to decide who I want to be the next leaders and get them on some courses," he said, looking over the names.

"Is it not just the people with the most experience?" Ginny queried. Harry shook his head.

"In DB, that would be Salvador Neal and he- well, let's just say he's had a bit of trouble," Harry said, rolling his eyes. Ginny chuckled.

The team came up for England on the screen. "Wood's good, isn't he?" Harry commented.

"Yeah, he played for Gryffindor at Hogwarts, too. He was good then," Ginny said.

"Did you play for his team?" he asked. He didn't look at her and Ginny knew why. She was barely looking at him for fear that they'd make the mistake they had the previous night.

Ginny nodded and then gasped. "I didn't realise Angie was playing," she commented. "Angelina Johnson," she clarified at Harry's look. "Oh my gosh," she said, shocked.

"Your sister-in-law, right?"

Ginny nodded, pleased that he'd remembered. "I wish I was there," she pouted.

"My sub-sub-team are going to the actual euros," he offered.

"Me too?" she questioned with wide eyes. Harry nodded.

"Of course. You're a part of the team," he reminded her. Ginny grinned sheepishly.

"Which match?"

"We'll go to a few, I'd expect. I'll have to wait until the dates are out."

"Oh, that would be so amazing! And to go to Italy," Ginny sighed dreamily.

Harry smiled. "We'll probably all have a week off and see maybe four games that week."

"This is so exciting! Oh and, speaking of holidays," Ginny said, "you mentioned a residential at work and I forgot to ask you about it. What's the deal there?"

"Oh," Harry said, nodding. They paused to watch the players take off, the English in white and the Swedish in blue. "Yeah, well, once a year, we go to this residential place for team building," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "Every sub-sub-team has to go on one, so I looked around and this place looked quite good. To be honest, we just do activities like canoeing and shit during the day and then we sit around a campfire by night. It's all camping, so you'll have to get a tent, and it's a muggle place, so you can't have one of those magical tents that are actually like palaces inside," Harry said with a laugh. Ginny nodded.

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad," Ginny surmised. "Do we stay in tents on our own or with a partner?" she asked.

"You could stay in a tent with Maggie if you wanted," Harry offered. "We usually stay alone, though," Harry told her. Ginny nodded.

"When is that?"

"Mid-October, so it's lovely and cold and rainy," Harry said sarcastically. Ginny sniggered. She watched his eyes go to the screen, where two of the players were fighting.

"What the hell?" Ginny said with an incredulous look. Two of the players, Lara Odell from England and Agata Nilsson from Sweden, both highly respected beaters, were having an all-out brawl in the air.

"I love it when stuff like this happens," Harry commented with a grin. "Want a beer?" he offered. Ginny nodded and he opened a green glass bottle for her.

"Cheers," she replied, sipping it and finding it pleasantly chilled. "They're gonna be kicked off the pitch," Ginny said excitedly. "Who've we got on the bench?"

"Ben Fielder," Harry replied immediately, "but he's got nowhere near the skill of Odell," Harry said, swearing quietly.

"But at least Nilsson's off the pitch. Last game against her, she hit our seeker with a bludger to the head and Hill's never played again," Ginny balanced. Harry nodded.

"There you go," he said, as the ref took them off the pitch. Game started again and they both sat quietly.

"Harry, I wanted to tell you something," Ginny said, after Angelina scored a goal.

"Hmm?" he said, turning to her.

"I don't usually do what I did last night," she said, slightly awkwardly.

"What? Have sex?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

"Not after meeting somebody thirty minutes before," she said, looking down to her lap. "I'm not saying I regret it, because I don't, but I just wanted to say that I'm not some sort of slag," she made clear.

"If it makes you feel better, I don't usually do that either. In fact, that was the first sex I've had in six months," Harry said with a laugh.

"Oh. Okay then. I just wanted to tell you," she said, biting her lip.

"Just for the record, I didn't think you were a slag," Harry told her.

"Oh. Well, good," she said, staring down at her lap.

"Ginny, I don't want things to be awkward," Harry sighed.

"Neither do I," Ginny agreed. Harry nodded.

"Then, let's agree, they're not awkward," he declared.

"Can we do that?" Ginny laughed.

"Just did."


	3. Chapter 3

Ginny woke up abruptly when she heard the communal lounge door open. "You do have an apartment here, don't you?" Harry asked her drily from the door. Ginny sat up sharply at his voice.

"Yes," she said defensively. "I just fell asleep down here last night."

Harry looked at his watch. "You're due in work in fifteen minutes," he informed her. Ginny jumped up.

"Shit, shit, shit. Cover for me?" she said, as she dashed out of the room.

"To who?" he asked incredulously. " _I'm_ your boss!" he shouted after her.

 **XXX**

It was 9:15 when Vicky and Ginny slipped into the HPHPHP crew room, both looking distinctly dishevelled. "Nice of you to join us," Harry said sarcastically.

"Sorry, Harry," Vicky muttered. Ginny noticed that the late-thirties woman looked pale and haggard and Ginny furrowed her brow as she looked towards Harry and delivered the same message.

"No worries; sit down," he hurried them. "We need to discuss our progress before we train."

Ginny listened intently as they discussed what they had learned about the London drugs circle. It wasn't the biggest circle in the country by a long mile, because the auror office in London were so good at disabling it, but, with the Manchester and Liverpool circles being so active, the London one had been allowed to grow a bit larger. Each group from the previous day said their bit and Ginny watched Harry take notes.

It was half an hour later that they were heading for the communal dressing area. Ginny wasn't particularly fussed about the lack of privacy. She'd grown up with six brothers and one bathroom so she was used to not having insane levels of privacy, but she was concerned about Harry. She couldn't let the others see that she was staring at him, so she couldn't, no matter how much she wanted to. And she hoped that he wouldn't stare at her either.

Ginny stared at the wall as she got changed into a sports bra and leggings. Stacey was wearing a similar outfit, but she was gorgeous and tall and leggy and her boobs were to die for. Ginny felt quite inferior in comparison. In fact, all of the women in the team were gorgeous, with abs, probably because of this constant training. Ginny knew she'd be just like them soon.

They were changed quickly and they began the workout. Ginny had thought that she was prepared. She wasn't. It was intense and led by somebody she'd not seen before, a man who introduced himself at the end to her as Clive, a fitness instructor. It was crazy difficult but the others didn't struggle as much as her. She supposed that was inevitable. They'd been doing it for so much longer than her.

Harry was attractive. There was no denying it and Ginny noticed that it wasn't only her eyes that were drifting to him. Ginny wondered if Harry knew that Stacey was in love with him. Ginny knew she was married, that she had a son, but Stacey's eyes were never off Harry. Unwanted, Ginny felt jealousy rise in her and she pushed it back down. Harry wasn't hers and he never could be, so she needed to stop pining after him.

But that didn't mean Stacey could have him. Stacey had a husband and a son. She had a family. Even Harry wasn't hot enough to break that, surely? What sort of a person would give up their family, their entire life to be with her boss? Only an idiot.

Ginny exited the changing room and Harry waved her over. He was stood around a table with Stacey, Vicky, Alex and Maggie. In Ginny's opinion, Stacey was stood just a little bit too close to Harry for her comfort. They were bent over a map that was covered in differently coloured circles. "The circles show the areas that each major drug gang generally operates," Vicky informed Harry. "RT gave it to Alex. We thought that if we added on the address or even the workplace of each death along with the type of potion that killed them we'd get some sort of idea of the gang that is causing the deaths and then we'd know where to focus." Harry nodded, his eyes scanning the map.

"That sounds good. Get each group to add their details onto it. I want it to be as fully informed as possible before we start properly investigating. Feed back to me once you've got some idea of what the actual cause is. Ginny, you help the team here. You guys, make sure Ginny knows how to work with this sort of map, the spells and that. I dunno if they do it in the Academy. I've got to go to a meeting at the Ministry but I'll catch up with you all after lunch. I'll probably be back at one," he informed them, waving goodbye and exiting to the office.

This was the first time Ginny had properly been without Harry since she'd started at the Aurors and she hadn't properly spoken to everyone yet. Even so, she wasn't usually shy, so she was sure that she'd fit in in no time. "We did a bit about maps at the Academy," Ginny told them with a grin, "anything I don't know I'm sure I'll pick up."

"Okay then, Ginny, do you wanna read the addresses from the list and then Stacey can tell us the cause and we'll get this map sorted?" Vicky suggested.

 **XXX**

"I'm just saying, sir, it's unrealistic!"

Robards sighed. "I know, Potter, but this is what we've wanted for so longer, what we've needed. They've never even considered it before. It's the first step. Yes, you'll be out of the office one day a week-"

"And so will every team leader! I understand that we'll have it on different days, so it won't be that we're taking every leader out of the office at once, but it's not the point! We've how many teams here? Forty? Whatever it is, a good chunk of that will be out of the office. They're the most experienced people we have here!"

"Potter, there are always people out of the office and it's only for six months. We'll adapt. We need this healing training, you know that. You've campaigned for it the most out of any of us."

"I campaigned for some healers joining us, not us becoming healers!" Harry yelled. Robards took off his glasses and began to clean them.

"Potter, this is just how things have to be now. I need you to go and draw up a list of others you want to be six month-trained and who you want to be two year-trained. I need at least twenty fully trained and I want twenty non-leaders to be six-month trained. They need to be committed-"

"I know. I'll go and do it now," Harry said, smiling grimly at his boss and leaving his office.

Robards was right. He knew that. For years, they'd been campaigning for healers to join their office. It just wasn't realistic for aurors to always have to go to St Mungos or the small doctors surgeries set up across the country when they needed a bit of help. It made more sense to train a healer up in basic auror skills and have them in the office. Now that the Ministry had finally given it some thought, they'd said that the aurors themselves should be trained. Harry agreed, of course he did. It made sense, but it meant a lot of the workforce leaving the office, leaving their missions. It meant that the quality of service that they gave would be lower.

He sighed, re entering his own office and sitting down at his desk wearily. Taking a piece of parchment and a quill, he opened the pot of ink and made a list of leaders. In his opinion that would be enough, but Robards wanted forty more. All in the name of health and safety, of course. He'd finish it tonight and give it to Robards in the morning. Right now, he wanted an update on the case.

"Mags, how're things looking?" he called as he left his office and the paperwork behind. All twelve members of his team were stood around the enlarged map.

"Trying to look for connections, Harry," she replied, looking at the map in frustration. "The majority of the deaths are caused by mixing caffeine with ARP," she told them. The room shared a collective wince. ARP was one of the most volatile ingredients known to wizards and there was a plethora of ingredients that it couldn't be mixed with. Caffeine was perhaps the most dangerous, because it didn't cause the potion to explode. Nobody would be able to tell they were mixed together until they had drunk it, at which point they would suffer an embolism. Awful way to die.

Harry rubbed his hand across his face. "Are we suspecting East London then? They've always been known to be a bit creative with ARP."

Kenneth shook his head. "We don't know, Harry. That was obviously our first thought, but all but one of the deaths are in other gang's areas. We've plotted workplaces as well and there's still very little correlation, especially because quite a few of them didn't even have jobs."

"It just doesn't seem like any of the other gangs," Lewis added frustratedly.

Stacey pursed her lips. "I still think we could make a case for Dynamite."

"Go on, Stace," Harry encouraged. Stacey sent him a beaming grin and Harry got that uncomfortable feeling in his stomach as he did so often around Stacey.

Stacey cleared her throat, "Dynamite is the only gang that covers the entirety of London and, although they're generally considered to be the most sensible, the most safe gang in London, they are still a gang and there are so many cases that we've tried to connect to them that they've dodged."

"But why would they?" Vicky questioned tiredly, as thought they'd had this conversation a million times before.

"Why would anyone? They're criminals," Stacey said with a roll of her eyes. Sensing the tension between them, Harry called a halt to the discussion.

"Did we get anything from Knockturn Alley yesterday?" He targeted the question at Simon, who nodded.

He explained their discussions in detail and Harry, as usual, gave the man respect for his attention to detail. Simon was such an asset on the team. His retirement would be a huge loss. Harry had never come across anybody like him.

"There was one other thing, boss," Simon continued. "We went into that apothecary, when the other team had told us about the ARP and asked some questions. They told us about a few characters that they hadn't seen before coming in and buying it. At any other store, of course, you need a licence to buy it, but things are a bit lax on Knockturn Alley." Harry smiled wryly. "Anyway, after some encouragement, the woman on the counter admitted that she thought there may be a new gang trying to get their foot in in London. I don't know how much to believe, but it's worth looking into."

"Definitely. Thanks, Si," Harry said appreciatively. "Right, ask around. Mags, take a couple of people with Witness Care training and go and interview the families of the deceased. Find out if they knew what gang they used, if they took regular trips somewhere, if they had any new friends, any weird things going on." Maggie nodded firmly and gestured to Alex and Ruby to follow her. "Cameron, I want to know what the potion is called. I want to know how many people use it, how common it is, how new it is. I want to know if it's a new potion or if it's a variation. Take Chloe, Lewis and Stacey and go and ask around the usual places." The mentioned people filed out of the room into one of the smaller planning rooms to plan their approaches. "Vicky-"

"I'm going to forensics, boss. One of the victims was found with the bottle."

"Excellent. Take Ginny," he ordered and Vicky nodded, gesturing to her to leave.

"Si, Lewis, can you nip next door and help on the double homicide? Ben had to call in sick, so can you go and help Izzy, Julian and Delilah?" the older men acquiesced to their boss and went to help out the other sub-team.

"Ken, I need you to-"

"Paperwork, I'm on it boss," his second said with a salute. Harry grinned in thanks.

"Robin, last but most certainly not least. You are going to a witness care training session. It's your second year now, so you'll be going every Tuesday from 11 til 5," Harry told her with a smile. Robin nodded. "Go to Anna's office, I think you're all meeting there."

"Sure boss. I'll probably see you tomorrow then?"

Harry inclined his head and returned to his office. The next month's day and night schedules wouldn't write themselves.

 **XXX**

"As an auror, I find it is in my duty to tell you that it is illegal to do that in the clear view of muggles," Ginny teased from the door of the apartment block common room. Harry turned to see her and rolled his eyes. He put down his wand which had been pointed at the ceiling, creating sparks.

"There's a ward up," he informed her, sitting up from his lying position and patting the cushion next to him.

"Any particular reason you're lying on the couch waving your wand in the air?" Ginny questioned, putting her feet up on the table between the sofa and the television, which muttered lightly in the background. He was watching the news.

"Yes," Harry told her. "I'm trying to come up with something that is a good enough excuse for me to not do the paperwork I need to do."

Ginny laughed. "And they made you Deputy Chief Commissioner why now?"

Harry chuckled. "Who knows. I need to make a list of people to send to do healer training and I need to sort out the schedule for the next month." Ginny nodded. "It's just so bloody complicated. If it was just day versus night, it'd be fine, but it's not. It's 9-5 versus 12-8 versus 3-11 versus 8-4 versus 12-9. Then it's who do I put on at the weekend? I hate when it's my turn to do this."

"Do you not do it all the time?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Nah, we do it in month rotations. So I'll do this month and then it'll be a good few months before I need to look at a bleeding schedule again," Harry groused to Ginny's laughter.

She quietened down and grabbed the remote. "Tuesday night, probably no Quidditch then?" she said, glancing sideways at her boss.

"Alas, no," Harry sighed in faux despair. "There might be some football on though," he commented lightly, aware that he was likely to get a bad reaction to that.

And, he was right. Ginny scoffed. "Are we bollocks watching football. What do you take me for?"

Harry snatched the remote from her hand and tutted at her. "I tell you what, Auror Weasley, I wouldn't have taken you for a racist."

Ginny harrumphed. "A racist? Me? A racist? How so, Potter?"

Harry's eyes gleamed and he smirked at her. "Well why don't you want to watch football? Because it's muggle? Have you ever even seen a game of football?"

"One, because it's not quidditch. Two, no and, three, no," she admitted. Harry rolled his eyes and turned the channel to a football match between Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion. He grinned at her.

"Get ready to be inducted into the world of football."

 **XXX**

Paperwork lay abandoned on the side and a beer sat in each of their hands. "Okay, I think I get it now. I'll probably need some clarification next time, but, for now, I get it," Ginny said finally, after about ten explanations of the offside rule.

"So you like it?"

"I didn't say that," Ginny replied. Harry rolled his eyes.

"You're so bloody stubborn, witch."

Ginny cackled. "I have been told that many times before." Harry laughed. He could imagine so. United, Harry's own team, had won the match three to nil and he was ecstatic if he was honest. He followed football almost as closely as he followed quidditch and United were the Puddlemere of football for him.

"There's a big match Saturday afternoon, if you fancy it. Some big charity thing," he explained with a down turn of his lips. He didn't want to pressure her into coming and it certainly was not a date. They could spend time together as friends couldn't they? That was all he wanted. A friend. Sirius and that lot were always telling him he didn't have enough friends his own age.

Ginny grinned wickedly. "Count me in." Harry grinned back at her, meeting her eyes for just a moment too long. He swallowed and looked away, anywhere but into her beautiful chocolate eyes. Looking around the room, his eyes stopped at the paperwork and he swore.

"Fuck, I need to do this still."

Ginny rolled her eyes, taking another sip of the beer Harry had provided her with. "Sounds like a you problem."

"As your boss," Harry started teasingly, "I could very easily make this a you problem." Ginny arched an eyebrow at him.

"I fucking dare you." Her face was dead set, not even a twitch of a smile, but he knew she was joking. She pursed her lips as his eyes traced her face. His lips unfolded into a smirk and he threw a file at her.

"Go through that and decide who you think looks like a healer," he ordered her and she scoffed in disbelief. "Come on, Ginny, all I'm asking you to do is look at some pictures and tell me who you think should train in healing. It'll be fun," he promised her, looking at her deeply. She held his gaze for a second or two before rolling her eyes and opening the file.

Harry got out a notepad and pen. Ginny gave him a look of surprise at the muggle writing equipment. "I was raised as a muggle," he explained to her, "I've always found it easier to use these than parchment, quill and ink. I have to at work, of course, but if it's just notes, I don't see the point."

Ginny shrugged and began to look at the faces in the file that Harry had given her, while he turned to the schedules. "Shouldn't you be going on their personalities or skills rather than their looks?" Ginny asked passively. Harry chuckled and shrugged.

"Nah, we just need a load of healers, so I don't really care. Everyone is gonna go to a few seminars and stuff, so it doesn't really make a difference," he explained to her and she shrugged again, turning back to the file.

 **XXX**

Ginny giggled hysterically. They'd been through three more beers each and were getting to the end of the file. Harry had finished the schedules after their second beer and since, they'd been drawing funny pictures on top of each person's picture in the file. Harry had just added a curly moustache and huge glasses on Bonnie Figueroa's face. Even though Ginny didn't really know the majority of the people in the file yet, everything Harry was doing was funny. She supposed that the alcohol was helping.

"Oh, add some Shrek ears," Ginny giggled over Harry's shoulder as he moved onto Julian Sims. Harry chuckled appreciatively. She had no idea when they'd got so close, but Harry's chuckles vibrated her body. She was leaning on him, trying to get as close to the file as possible. "She looks like a healer," Ginny said, pointing drunkenly at Laura Campbell.

Harry scoffed. "Laurie?" he almost giggled, setting Ginny off again. When their giggles died down, Ginny furrowed her brow at his nickname.

"Laurie?" she asked, pulling away from him. "How well do you know her, hey, Potter?" she queried, trying to raise her eyebrows suspiciously and shoving his shoulder.

He whispered something in her ear and then pulled back, his eyes narrowed and a smirk on his face. He looked incredibly sexy and his mouth next to her ear had sent feelings flooding through her body. She continued to stare at him, considering how he was affecting her. "Hmm?"

"What?" she blurted and Harry chuckled, getting closer to her again.

"I asked," he whispered, "if you were jealous." Ginny scoffed and shoved him again.

"Me, Potter? Jealous? Because of you?" She laughed raucously for as long as she possibly could.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes," he hissed. The file dropped to the floor, knocking over a couple of empty bottles of beer.

Ginny huffed and folded her arms, pulling away from him. Furrowing his brow and sitting up, Harry looked at her curiously. His face was hilarious and Ginny burst out with giggles. "What are you laughing at, Weasley?"

"Your face," she giggled.

Harry harrumphed and then said, "I'll give you something to giggle at." Surprising Ginny entirely, he began to tickle her. His hands were all over her body and the laughter coming out of Ginny's mouth was high pitched and long-lasting.

"Stop!" she screamed, trying to kick him off her. She fidgeted a lot, trying to get him off her. He was making her laugh so much that tears were flowing from her eyes. When Harry noticed this, he stopped immediately.

"Ginny, oh my God, I'm so sorry," he said, pulling away from her. Ginny looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

"You're crying," he said, poking her cheek. Ginny giggled.

"With laughter, you silly man."

"Oh."

The room was silent but for the TV that they'd not given any attention to since the two of them had been in there. Ginny bit her lip. She knew what she wanted to do. If she was sober, she wouldn't. Well. She didn't think she would. But, hey, that was doubt! A grin unfurled on her face. Doubt was all she needed.

She turned to Harry and found him staring at her. "Gin-"

He didn't say anything else before Ginny had straddled him and had covered his lips with her own.

 **XXX**

Hands roaming, lips mashing, Harry knew it was wrong. In the back of his mind, he knew it was wrong. There was no doubt of it, but he didn't care. He wanted this and evidently so did she. His arms tightened around her and her hands grasped at his hair. "Ginny," he gasped.

"No, Harry, don't stop," she said, moving her mouth to his neck. Harry scoffed, chuckling, and then pushed her off him. She fell, lying down on the sofa. She groaned loudly. "Come on," she encouraged.

He grinned, standing up, and lifted her up bridal style. "I want to have you in my bed," he hissed in her ear. Her smile matched his own, mischievous as could be. She pressed an open-mouthed kiss onto his jawline and he waggled his eyebrows down at her. They reached the lift and Ginny pressed the button to the top floor. Harry had the penthouse.

"I cannot wait for you to be inside me," Ginny whispered as they entered the empty lift. Harry's body burned with the need to be inside her. "I woke up on Monday and I could still feel it," she told him.

"Fuck, shut up Ginny," he groaned to her giggles.

"But I like getting you all worked up," Ginny giggled, kissing his neck and sucking down. "It makes me so horny," she breathed against his neck.

Harry dropped her to her squeal of discontent. She glared at him from the floor, leaning back against her elbows. "What the fuck," she cried out. He smirked at her, bringing the lift to a stop with just a wave of his hand. "Was that wandless-"

"Yeah." He pulled her up, her pupils almost entirely black. "Does that turn you on, Gin?" he asked, waving his hand again and banishing all of her clothes to his bedroom. She gasped in shock. Putting his hand between her legs, he stroked her and smirked. "Your pussy is answering for herself," he hissed in her ear, backing her up to the wall.

"Harry," she gasped out. "Don't stop."

"I don't intend to, Gin. I don't intend to ever stop."

 **XXX**

An alarm was ringing. Harry did not want to open his eyes. Clearly, he'd gone to sleep too late, and too drunk. Squinting slightly to find the alarm, he whacked it and let out a groan. Work. And on this boring potions case. He hated any cases about drugs-

"Morning," Ginny whispered and Harry swore, remembering the events of last night. Ginny was lying next to him, completely naked and staring at the ceiling.

"Well then," Harry said, sitting up and rubbing a hand over his face. "Here we are again."

"Well, actually, last time, you left me in your bed alone," Ginny informed him, standing up and grabbing her clothes from the floor. Harry looked as though he was about to speak and Ginny held a hand up. She pulled her top on over her head. "Look, Harry, you don't need to tell me. Last night was stupid and we need to stop it happening. We could both lose our jobs and I really can't be arsed with the hassle of that," she said with a wry smile. Harry chuckled, watching as she pulled her pants on. "Let's not mention it, hey? Last night was amazing, but won't happen again."

"Right," Harry agreed. "Ginny, thank you."

She winked at him. "No problem. See you at work, boss." Harry tried to smile as she left his bedroom.

Boss.

What a cursed word.

 **XXX**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey guys! Here's chapter four. Hope you like this one as much as you've liked the past three. I'm really grateful for the reviews and they are really what inspired me to get this chapter finished (despite my exams!). Thank you for your criticism, too. I'm taking it under consideration. My exams finish on Wednesday so I'm going to have a lot more time for writing after that as I won't have anything except a few shifts at work to do over the next few months. Anyway, enough of that. Hope you love it!**

Work progressed smoothly over the next few days. Wednesday was spent sorting the last of the start of year paperwork and the HP weekly meeting in the morning and then trained with the team in the afternoon. He spent Wednesday evening at Sirius and Amelia's and got back late. He checked in the common room to see if Ginny was there, but there was no sign. Clearly, she'd made the same decision as he had - to stay away from each other where possible.

Thursday morning, he had a meeting at the Ministry with Gawain, Kingsley et al. He discussed the case with them and was praised for their efforts so far, which pleased Harry. Afterwards, he and Ken went for their weekly lunch meeting at their favourite Italian restaurant and discussed the case and other news within the department. That afternoon was spent in a meeting about healing, along with Chloe and Robin who were the other people he'd chosen from his team to get trained up. Robin would be two-year trained, but Chloe only six-month like Harry. He'd met with the team in its entirety before they finished for the day and they'd talked about what to do going forward. They were almost sure that these potions were due to this new group that they hadn't heard of before. Afterwards, Harry had gone for tea and Remus and Tonks' and then come home.

Friday was, again, completely normal. He had a meeting with every Assistant Commissioner (i.e. the heads of departments) and then he met with Reggie Tate specifically to discuss the case and the particulars of PDN cases. Reggie was far more experienced, as the Potions, Drugs and Narcotics co-ordinator. By lunchtime, Harry was wondering where the day had gone and had returned to his office to complete some paperwork.

There was a knock on his door into the HPHPHP area. Harry looked up from the patrol schedules, observing the clock above his door which read seven o' clock. When had that happened? "Come in!" Harry shouted. It was Stacey at the door. Harry gave her a smile. "You okay, Stace?"

She nodded with a returned smile. "We're gonna go to the Chimera, if you fancy it, boss?"

Harry grinned. If it was a Friday night, and they weren't working the weekend (which was about once a month), they would generally go out for a few drinks. And, usually, the younger of the lot would end up at some clubs on Crystal Trail, a magical clubbing street in Manchester. It was very popular with people from all over the world, especially at the weekend. "Yeah, give me ten mins and I'll join you."

"Perfect, see you in a few," she replied with a wink, closing the door behind her.

 **XXX**

"Hey, it's Harry!" Alex Santos shouted. Ginny looked up from her vodka and pumpkin juice to see Harry approaching. She'd not spent very much time with him over the past few days, because of their lapse on Tuesday night. She was determined not to make the same mistake tonight.

"Hey guys," Harry greeted, taking a seat next to Maggie around the table. "No Vicky?" he asked, naming the only member of HPHPHP who hadn't joined them. They all shook their heads with a shrug. Vicky had said that she had to get home.

"Ten minutes my arse, Harry!" Stacey called. "It's been at least half an hour."

Harry grimaced and Ginny wondered how much he knew of Stacey's feelings for him. "Sorry, Stace, got caught up a bit with patrol schedules." The entire team groaned and Harry seemed to agree. Ginny herself hadn't experienced a patrol yet. From what she understood, teams worked a week of patrols every month, either on Diagon Alley, at Hogwarts or Hogsmeade. They also patrolled quidditch games or other big events, including Hogsmeade weekends. "Anyway, I'm gonna get a drink. Won't be two ticks," Harry told them with a grin.

"So, how have you found your first week, Ginny?" Simon asked her. He was a lovely man, who'd been working at the auror office for 38 years. He was now 58 and finally retiring. He'd worked through both of Voldemort's reigns and had finally experienced the auror office in a state of organisation and clarity. He said that that was all he'd ever wanted.

"It's been great," Ginny confessed. She'd loved every moment. Yes, it was hard work but she'd expected that. She got along with every team member and felt that she'd been put into an amazing group. "I didn't think I'd be enjoying it so much."

Simon grinned. "It is amazing. Hard work, mind, but amazing."

Harry returned a few minutes later and sat back down. The conversation transferred to him and it was clear how every member of the team revered him. Ginny took the opportunity to review her surroundings. She'd never even heard of the Chimera. It was a magical pub in Liverpool that the aurors favoured. They were definitely not the only team of aurors there. When they'd arrived, Cameron Woods had informed Ginny that, if you weren't working at the weekend, you came to the Chimera on a Friday night and, if you weren't working Sunday, you came on a Saturday after work. Essentially, if they weren't working the next day, they would come to the Chimera. Ginny did not have a problem with that at all.

They chatted for ages. Time flew by. Ginny found out all about the people she worked with, who was married, who had kids, who was a lightweight. After two drinks, Robin was talking about what her boyfriend was like in bed. After three drinks, Alex was gushing about how much his loved his wife. After four, Ruby was telling them how much she hated Shelly Cruz from HPBNIW, much to the team's agreement. Having never met her, Ginny didn't want to make any judgement, but she had a feeling she wouldn't like her either.

Five drinks in and Ginny was smashed. Completely and utterly smashed. More drunk than she'd been the other night when she'd shagged Harry. "So, Ginny," Ruby giggled, "you've not told us! What's your deal? You got a boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

Ginny giggled herself. "No!" she practically yelled. "I was seeing Dean when I started at the Academy. He was my brother's best friend, but he couldn't stand the thought of me working for the aurors," Ginny told the team with a roll of her eyes. "He wasn't that interesting anyway. I had a thing with a guy who worked at the bar near the Academy for a while, but it wasn't about anything but the sex," she whispered, unsure of how well that worked. "He was in-cred-i-ble though," Ginny confessed loudly, before downing the rest of her drink.

"The best you've ever had?" Robin questioned with a waggle of her eyebrows. Ginny bit her lip and threw her head back, staring at the ceiling. "What are you doing?" she giggled.

"I'm thinking!"

Harry was sat opposite her on the table and she couldn't deal with him trying to hide his smirk. "Come on, Ginny," she heard him begin, "surely it's not that difficult."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at the light on the ceiling. "Well," she said, swinging herself upwards, "the thing is, I've been with some guys who thought a bit too much of themselves, if you know what I mean."

Robin laughed raucously. "I know exactly what you mean, Ginny. Guys who think they're all that and actually don't have that much going for them," she said with a purposeful look at her crotch. Ginny giggled uncontrollably.

"Exactly, Robin! The last guy I was with was just like that," Ginny said with a sad shake of her head.

"Shall we go to Aparecium?" Harry interrupted, before Ginny could continue slagging him off.

"Yes!" Chloe agreed, shotting the rest of her vodka coke.

 **XXX**

The team apparated to Manchester. They'd been slimmed slightly, leaving just Ginny, Robin, Chloe, Stacey, Ruby, Alex and Harry for the clubs. It was the usual group who actually hit the clubs. They never intended on going to clubs when they set out for the night, but after drinks at the Chimera, they were always up for Aparecium, their favourite club.

The queue for the club was rather large. "Come on, Harry, you know they'll let us in if they see you," Ruby pleaded. "You've done it before!"

Harry laughed. He had done it before, just the once, but then everyone knew he was inside and he'd had a shit night if he was honest. He couldn't be arsed with that tonight, not on his first night out with Ginny. Not that that mattered. Not that she particularly mattered. He shook himself. He'd only had four drinks but he was just as drunk as he'd been on Tuesday night with Ginny.

"Nah, Rubes," he said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Let's queue up like the rest of the rabble." Ruby giggled and wrapped an arm around his waist. They walked along, talking about everything and nothing. Ruby was one of his favourites among the team. Harry could hear Ginny talking to Alex behind them.

Stop.

Harry could hear Stacey talking to Chloe and Robin behind them. And Ginny talking to Alex. Maybe drinking with her wasn't the best idea, but it was too late now.

Standing in queues for clubs wasn't the most interesting part of the night, but Harry didn't necessarily mind it, especially when it wasn't absolutely freezing. It meant that he got a chance to chat with his friends for that bit longer. He was listening to Alex describe a particularly interesting position his girlfriend had got into last night when Ginny moved rather suddenly. The whole team looked at her confused.

"What the fuck are you doing, Weasley?" Harry slurred, observing her hiding behind Alex.

"My brothers have just walked past," she said, swearing directly afterwards. "They're so embarrassing. Do _not_ let them see me!" she ordered. Harry smirked at her and lifted his hands to his mouth, about to shout somebody's name. Ginny punched him in the stomach, much to his amusement.

"I'm joking, Weasley," he chortled. "Although, attacking your superiors, not a joke," he told her, wagging a finger in her face.

"Get your finger out of my face, Potter, and help me stay hidden if you want a decent night. Those twats will completely ruin this if they see me," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"It's okay, Weasley, we'll protect you," Alex joked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Jealousy flared through Harry's body. He wanted to punch Alex in the face, despite knowing that Alex had a wife and it was just a friendly gesture. He glared daggers at Alex's arm and, then, promptly, turned to Stacey and began having a conversation with her. Anything to not look at Ginny giggling at Alex.

Stacey was the wrong choice, Harry realised immediately. She loved to touch people on a night out, he remembered as she stroked his arm. Harry turned to the team again and found Ginny's eyes narrowed on Stacey's hand. Harry grinned. If he was a more horrible person, he'd use Stacey to his advantage and tease the living daylights out of Ginny. But there were several problems with that plan:

Stacey was a member of his team and that would screw with her feelings

Stacey was a member of his team and that was unethical

THERE WAS NOTHING GOING ON BETWEEN HIM AND GINNY

Finally, they reached the front of the queue. They showed their apparition licences and then paid a galleon each. Stamps firmly on their hands, they entered their favourite club. It played muggle and magical music, with classics such as Mr Brightside and Come On Eileen played regularly. As they entered, I Don't Feel Like Dancing was playing.

"Come on," Robin enticed, "Let's dance!"

 **XXX**

Ginny loved going out and dancing. It was one of her favourite parts of the Academy, her prolific nightlife. She particularly loved Aparecium's music. The song playing at the moment was Sk8er Boi, one of her favourites. Holding her hands out to the right lyrics, she shook her arse like no one was watching, loving the feel of the alcohol coursing through her body. She danced with everyone. Robin grinded against her as though they were together, making Ginny giggle and squeal. Stacey kept reaching over and grabbing her tit to Ginny's surprise and delight. Alex span her around and around until she was too dizzy to stand.

Harry, however, stood away from her at all times. Every so often, she'd look up and see him dancing with Robin or Alex or Ruby. Sometimes, she'd see him with Stacey and anger would course through her veins and the sight of Stacey's face, so infatuated. It disgusted Ginny.

"What the hell? Ginny?"

Well fuck. She knew that voice. Behind her stood Bill, her eldest brother. "Bill!" she cried drunkenly, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her other brothers swiftly followed.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Ginny?" Bill asked angrily and Ginny scoffed. Robin came and slung her arm over Ginny's shoulders.

"Excuse me, I don't know who the fuck you are," Robin slurred, "but this is an Aurors night out only and we do not _appreciate_ your presence." Ginny giggled madly at the look on her brothers' faces.

"You heard the lady," Ginny informed them, shoving Bill in the chest. "You are not welcome."

Charlie looked at her disapprovingly. "You're drunk."

"And you, Charles, are boring me! Come on, Robin, let's go back to some fun people," Ginny announced, wrapping her arm around Robin's waist and striding off towards where Harry and the rest of the team had moved to. Her brothers didn't follow, thankfully. Annoying gits.

When they found their friends again, Ginny saw that Stacey had her arms around Harry's neck and was dancing far too close to him. Fury swelled in her stomach. Why wasn't Harry pushing her off him? Why was he letting her dance so close to him? She was practically grinding against him. Did he like her? Maybe they were going out secretly. Maybe he'd cheated on her with Ginny.

"I'm going to the toilet!" Ginny shouted and stormed off, pushing past people on her way to the toilets. She couldn't stand looking at that- that whore for one more second. She reached the toilets and sat on the ledge that ran along the wall between the mens and womens loos. Thankfully, no one had followed her, so she didn't have to explain that she'd run off because she was jealous of one of her co-workers grinding against her boss, who she happened to have shagged quite a few times, despite only having started work on Monday.

She considered going home. The night was awesome and she was having so much fun, but she'd catch Harry's eye in the corner of hers and her heart would ache. She was aware that her attraction to him wasn't just about the sex. It was everything. He was awesome. He made her smile. He was so powerful and confident and fun and he cared about everyone. Harry was everything she had ever wanted and Fate had cursed her with him as a boss.

However, Ginny Weasley was not a coward. Men did not control her life. She was going to continue having an amazing night, no matter how much she wanted to be spending it with Harry. Despite her resolve, Ginny continued to sit on the bench for a few more minutes, until she had fully steeled herself.

"Gin?"

Oh bloody hell. Harry coming over had not been part of the plan. Ginny forced a smile onto her face and turned to him. "Harry?" she said, "what are you doing here?"

Harry reached out a hand to her and pulled her up from the bench, putting his mouth by her ear so that she could actually hear him. "I came to find you," he told her, "I was worried." His lips were too close to her ear. Those stupid lips that could do such magical things. They sent shocks through her body. She would happily have those lips anywhere on her body, following the shivers he was sending through her. "Are you okay?" he asked, looking deep into her eyes.

With him looking at her like that, Ginny just wanted to kiss him. His eyes were incredible, the brightest colour of green she'd ever seen. "Gin?" he prompted.

"Sorry, I was busy falling into your eyes," she giggled into his ear. Harry's grin warmed her insides. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Caught you," he whispered and Ginny laughed, leaning her head against his shoulder. When she felt the press of his lips against her neck, her breath caught.

"Harry," she warned.

"Let me have you again," he said into her ear and her heart broke. There was nothing she wanted more. "Let me have you, Ginny," he implored and Ginny shook her head, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"We can't," she said against his chest.

"What?" he said, clearly unable to hear her. Ginny shook her head. She heard him sigh. She felt it.

His fingers tickled the underneath of her chin and she giggled, looking up at him. He was the perfect height in her opinion, taller than her by quite a bit but not by as much as Ron or Bill. Fuck it, she was drunk.

Their lips were crashing together before they knew what was happening. He was an excellent kisser, the best she'd ever had. Hips ground together, mirroring the actions of their lips. He backed her into the wall and pinned her against it. "Harry." She pulled away desperately. They would regret this in the morning. "No, Harry, we can't."

"I know," he said emphatically. "But I want to more than anything in the world, Ginny," he hissed into her ear. She knew. By the word, she knew. She could feel him against her leg, hard and pulsing. The same feeling was shooting around her body. She pulled out of his arms and gave him a sad smile, pressing a kiss against his stubbled cheek and leaving it there for a few seconds. He sighed.

She left.

 **XXX**

"I dunno, mate," Harry protested as he exited the gym with Dave Jennings, Sam Allen and Owen James, his best friends within the unit.

"Come on, Harry. Vera would love to see you," Dave implored.

"Okay, so it'll be you and Vera, Sam and Jackie, Owen and Rachel, Naomi and Frankie, Anna and Mike, and then just me. On my _own_ ," Harry told them with a roll of his eyes.

"Then bring a date!" Owen suggested. Rolling his eyes was far too common a habit when he was around his mates. A date. Harry snorted.

They reached the gym door. "Come on, you're Harry Potter. Any girl in the world would want to go with you," Sam said with a roll of his eyes.

"Nah but I don't want a fangirl," Harry stated for what felt like the millionth time.

"Oh but they'd be oh so lovely in the sack," Owen said with a waggle of his eyebrows. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Non fangirls are rather decent as well," Harry said, grinning slightly at the thought of Ginny.

The three men shared a look. "Oh are they indeed? Is this something to do with Sunday night, Potter?" Dave asked curiously. Harry smirked at them.

"Maybe."

"Well, invite this non fangirl!" Dave encouraged. Harry's smirk slipped off his face. He'd never be able to invite Ginny to that sort of thing because he'd never be able to be with Ginny. Not in the way Naomi and Frankie, both heads of departments, could be. "Ey up, did she bin you off after you shagged her? Are you really that shit in bed?"

Harry punched Dave in the arm. "Fuck off," he laughed. "Nah, it just would never work between us you know?"

"Too different?" Sam queried.

Harry thought about it. He and Ginny really weren't too different at all. Of course, there were differences between them, but they both loved the same things. They were actually rather well suited to each other, but other things got in the way.

"Something like that," Harry muttered, ignoring the look that the other guys were giving him.

"Well, I don't care if you bring no one. You're coming on Tuesday night," Dave declared. Harry sighed.

 **XXX**

Returning to the flat, Harry jumped into the shower. The gym had done a lot to get rid of his hangover, but nothing to make him stop remembering his conversation with Ginny outside the loos in Aparecium last night. She'd been the sensible one in the situation and Harry berated himself for that. He was her boss; he needed to be the sensible one.

But, Merlin, she stopped him being sensible. Generally, he was a sensible man. It was what got him so far with the Aurors. It was why he hadn't had sex in months - because he thought about it before he did it. And there would be nothing more embarrassing than an interview in the Daily Prophet from a girl he'd shagged. You just never knew what she'd say. So, he didn't shag anyone he didn't trust. No one magical anyway.

Except Ginny.

He'd not thought twice before shagging her on Sunday night. It hadn't even crossed his mind to do the sensible thing and say no. If he had, his life would be about a million times easier now. But it wasn't. And he didn't rightly care.

That shag had been the best of his life. And with someone that he got along with so well. She was so perfect. Perfect in general, but also perfect for him.

Harry shook his head, turning the shower off. He had no idea what he was going to do. What he wanted to do was more clear. He wanted to say fuck it to all the rules and get together with Ginny. But he couldn't. Of course he couldn't.

"Harry!" he heard a voice scream as he entered his living room, dressed only in a pair of jeans.

"Oof," burst out of him as a small child jumped up onto him. "Hey, Cady," Harry said, looking over his goddaughter's shoulder at his godfather and his wife, each carrying a child.

Another child had latched onto his leg and Harry joked around trying to move while Magnus giggled wildly. Acadia laughed with her hands running her hands through Harry's messy hair. "You alright, pup?" Sirius asked with a smirk. Harry chuckled and sat down on his sofa, Acadia settling on his lap and Magnus crawling up to sit next to him.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Harry asked, nodding along to whatever Acadia was saying. Amelia came over to sit down next to Harry, their newborn baby Persephone in her arms.

Sirius sat down on his other side and Harry smiled oddly, looking between the two. "We just wanted to check on you, make sure you weren't spending your weekend all alone," Sirius told him. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I only got up at midday, ate and then went to the gym with some guys from work. Then, I got home, had a shower and here I am," Harry told them dryly.

"Topless," Amelia added with a smirk.

"Yes, well, if I'd had some sort of warning, I would've put a top on," Harry said, trying to pull his face away as Acadia poked it. Amelia rolled her eyes at him.

"Not bring anyone home last night then?" she asked curiously. Sirius looked at him with his eyebrows raised and Harry leaned back against the sofa.

"No," he said definitively. Maybe he should confide in them about Ginny. If anyone could help, they could. Meh. It had only been a week. Crushes didn't go away in a week. And that was all this was. A crush.

"Cady, get off Harry and let him hold your sister," Amelia instructed and Acadia complied immediately with a pout. She still sat as closely to him as possible, but allowed him to hold her black-haired sister. Persephone was six weeks old and she was beautiful. She was the spitting image of Sirius, with lovely black hair and piercing grey eyes.

"Where's Romy?" Harry asked, querying their missing child.

"She's at Lucy's."

Amelia stood and moved to the kitchen, opening and closing all of the cupboards.

"Amelia," Harry protested.

"I'm gonna make some food," she told him. "What did you have for lunch?"

"I was just about to make it before you busy bodies arrived."

"Harry, it's four in the afternoon!" Harry's mouth dropped. Was it really that late? The charity football game started in half an hour. He wondered if Ginny would join him like she'd hinted she would. "What? What time did you think it was?" Amelia asked with a laugh and a smirk.

"No, I just- there's a football match on this afternoon," he told them with a crooked smile. His godfather and his wife laughed at him. Harry rolled his eyes at the baby in his arms. "Always get mocked I do, Seffie."

"Good idea, Potter. Get the baby on your side," Sirius teased. "What football game is it?"

"Some charity thing," Harry said distractedly. "I was gonna watch it downstairs."

"Are you saying we're not invited?" Amelia said, faux-hurt. Harry rolled his eyes and tickled Persephone's stomach.

"Come if you want, but I know for a fact you hate football, Amelia," Harry said with raised eyebrows, only to be ignored. Amelia finally located the bread and ham and began to make Harry a sandwich. Sometimes she forgot that Harry wasn't a child.

XXX

Ginny had spent her day sat in the common room, as she often did, not having any sort of chair or bed in her flat. When she wasn't in the common room, she was leaning against a piece of wall in her flat, going over the auror handbook or reading some other sort of book. It wasn't like she had anything else to do.

"What you watching?" she heard from behind her. Unwarranted, her heart skipped a beat. Containing a sigh of discontent at her heart's reaction, Ginny turned and gave Harry a small smile.

"News," she replied simply, her stomach doing a funny sort of flip as he took a seat next to her. "Not very interesting. I didn't know what channel the football game was on," she said, trying with everything she had to diminish the awkwardness in the room. He gave her a smile and took the remote control, turning it to channel 1.

"It starts in a few minutes," Harry told her. Ginny didn't look at him, only at the three men on the screen who were discussing the non-professionals who would be playing in the football match.

It took two minutes for both aurors to decide that they couldn't deal with the awkwardness. "Look, Harry," Ginny started and the moment that Harry began, "Ginny, I just-"

"You go," Ginny encouraged, eager to know what it was that Harry thought of the situation.

"I just wanted to apologise," he sighed. "It should have been me stopping us last night. I should never have started it and I don't want to blame my drunken state. That's not fair to you because you were drunk as well. I'm your boss and I shouldn't have kissed you in a bar where anyone could see. I shouldn't have kissed you at all," Harry considered. Ginny swallowed the lump of disappointment. "I want to be friends," he told her desperately and Ginny nodded eagerly.

"Let's be friends," she agreed. "Friends who work together, but do not sleep together," she joked and was gratified when Harry laughed.

"Agreed," he said and they shared a smile. "Now, the game's starting. Don't hesitate to ask me anything you don't understand," he teased her.

"Shove off, Potter, I'm sure it won't take me long to get a grip of things," she shot back.

 **XXX**


	5. Chapter 5

Pleased with their new arrangement, Harry arrived in work at seven o'clock sharp on Monday morning. He sent an admin assistant off to distribute the rotas he'd completed to each department, giving the aurors prior knowledge of what was going to happen a month from now. His team had another working week yet before they had any patrolling commitments. Monday to Friday they would work on the case, but on Saturday his whole department would be working the first games of the quidditch season. They would have Sunday off and then spend the week patrolling Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and the other various magical areas around the United Kingdom.

Patrolling wasn't something that any auror enjoyed really. Harry didn't mind the quidditch games because, often, he was placed in an area that meant he could watch the match and that wasn't something he'd ever pass up. However, magical area patrolling was another kettle of fish altogether. It was incredibly boring. On interesting days, they'd have some sort of thievery or public demonstration. Usually, however, it was just general complaints from shopkeepers or business owners. Very boring.

Thankfully, they had another week of interesting case work before that began. Their current case, the drugs case, was keeping them all on their toes. Although they had originally assumed that it was one of the well known drug gangs in London, they'd discovered that it was most likely a new one.

Today, Harry himself was going to interview the families and friends of the deceased and find out where they liked to go, whether they had any new friends and, more importantly, whether the deceased were linked in any way. If they were linked, then perhaps they weren't looking at a drugs gang, but a mass murderer.

And that would be interesting indeed.

But, before all of that, Harry had to do some paperwork. He'd chosen who was going to replace the aurors who were retiring or going on maternity leave and he had to go and get approval from Robards.

"Morning, Potter," Robards greeted as Harry entered his office. "Heard you beat Sports and Games yesterday?"

Harry grinned at the memory of the quidditch match they'd played yesterday morning. "Those guys might know a lot about quidditch, but they've got nothing on the reflexes and athleticism of the HP department," Harry joked and Robards laughed.

"Good, good. Now, who are we looking to promote?" his boss said, straight to business. Harry cleared his throat and laid his plans on Robards's desk.

The meeting only took twenty minutes, with Robards agreeing with each of Harry's decisions. As he stood to leave, there was a knock at the door. "Oh, that'll be Arthur," he said, "my next meeting. Hope you don't mind, Harry?"

"Of course not," Harry said amicably, shaking Robards' hand. "I'll see you soon."

Opening the door, Harry was faced with Arthur Weasley, head of Muggle Liaison, a department that worked closely with the auror department. "Harry!" the red-headed man said excitedly. Harry gave the man a smile and took the hand offered to him. "I hear you've got my Ginny on your team?"

For a second, Harry's smile faltered. He'd completely forgotten that Ginny was Arthur's daughter. So, here he was, staring at the man whose daughter he'd fucked. "Oh- er, yeah, Ginny. She's great," he said lamely. Arthur, however, beamed at him.

"I wasn't too sure when she said she was going to become an auror, but I'm so proud of her," he continued and Harry wanted to escape, not able to face the fact of what had happened between him and Ginny.

"You really should be, Arthur. She's a credit to you," Harry returned honestly. "I hope you don't mind, but I really have to-" Arthur held his hand up and nodded.

"I'll see you soon," he said and Harry returned the sentiment, before striding away from the office without a second look.

Arthur Weasley. How could he have forgotten that he was Ginny's father? He shook himself and returned to his own office. It was getting closer to eight o'clock and he had things that he wanted to do before his team arrived at nine.

 **XXX**

"So, how did you know Charles Allen?" Maggie questioned the man who sat in front of them on a picnic bench. Ginny and Maggie had arrived at the workplace of one of the friends of one of the victims. The mother of Charles Allen had known nothing of his drug problem, but had given them names of her son's friends that might know more.

Doug James was a builder, a poor wizard who had found a home in the muggle world, just like Charles Allen. Doug smiled wryly. "Charlie and me, we grew up together. Our mums didn't have the money to send us to Hogwarts and we were hardly likely to get scholarships 'cause we were pretty shite wizards," he said with a shrug, not particularly bothered by this information. "Charlie got into uni, though. Shit wizard but not too stupid, to be fair. He was a lawyer," he told them. They already had this information but there was no use interrupting someone that they needed information from. "Anyway, he went off to uni and I stayed here as a builder. When he finished, he got a job and we saw each other a bit. He actually introduced me to my wife," the youngish man reminisced. "She was a friend of his from his course. She's a lawyer too, my Bernie," he informed them proudly. Ginny gave him an encouraging smile.

"He was great, Charlie, so happy, until about a year ago. He'd been in this great relationship with a girl called Sandy. They were so happy together, you know? Me and him, we went ring shopping for her. He got this blinder of a ring and planned out his proposal - only to find her cheating on him in their bed when he got home. After that, he was different. Sadder. Bernie and I had him round for dinner once a week and tried to help him move on. We even introduced him to a new girl, Poppy Parkinson. She was a squib, a pureblood, but a squib," Doug said with a shrug. "They got on and for a while, it was me and Charlie, two shit wizards, my Bernie, a muggle, and Poppy, the squib."

"I think Charlie must've already started by then, though, on drugs, because by the time I found out, he was two months into a relationship with Poppy, and injecting all sorts of shit into his veins," Doug continued with a sigh. "This was two months ago. I couldn't bear to tell his mum. She lost his dad in the war and life is shit for her. Bernie and I tried to help him, as much as we could, but I guess we just weren't enough."

"I'm so sorry," Maggie said, her lips a grim line. "I don't suppose Charlie ever mentioned any names? Or did he make any new friends?"

Doug furrowed his brow, blinking away the glistening tears in his eyes. "I remember seeing him meeting up with someone. I'd gone to meet him for lunch at his office and he was outside, talking to somebody, a woman. They seemed to be good friends, laughing, standing pretty close. She handed him something. Obviously now I realise it was drugs. This was about two weeks before he met Poppy. I never got a name though - Charlie dismissed her as nobody. I thought he might have fancied her, but he was so in love with Poppy," Doug said with a shrug.

Maggie and Ginny shared a look. "Could you describe her?" Ginny asked. Doug nodded and gave a fairly general description of a woman with long brown hair and a prominent nose. It wasn't much to work on, especially when it could easily be a useless lead. They thanked Doug for his time, shaking his hand, before walking across the street to grab a coffee.

"Poppy Parkinson?" Ginny said wryly. Maggie gave her an odd look. "There may be a lot of Parkinsons in the wizarding world. It's a big family. But there's only one strand that name their daughters with flowers," Ginny commented.

"You think we should meet up with her?" Maggie questioned. Ginny shrugged.

"It probably wouldn't hurt. She can't be this mystery woman, though, because Doug would have recognised her." Maggie nodded. "I'll try and get some details when we get back to the office. What about this Sandy girl? Reckon there's anything there?"

Maggie seemed to weigh it over in her head. "I doubt it, but it doesn't do any harm to check. We'll add her to our never-ending list," Maggie said with a roll of her eyes. Ginny gave her a supportive smile.

 **XXX**

"How long had she worked here?" Vicky questioned the manager of a small café in Covent Garden. Greta Price was another victim, estranged from her father since she'd graduated Hogwarts with no OWLs or NEWTs. Her mother had run off and started a new family when Greta was six, leaving Greta with just her father.

The manager of the café was a woman, about forty-years-old and clearly uninterested in Greta. Harry sighed. Poor Greta. It was no wonder she'd turned to drugs really. "About two years," the manager replied with a sigh, "although I don't know if I'd count the last three months. She turned up for two shifts a week and always came in pissed, or on something at least," the woman amended, her voice a melodic, yet angry, Welsh accent.

"DId she ever mention a new friend? Or did she ever meet up with anyone here?" Harry asked a bit desperately. This was the same story they'd heard all day, all week.

"Yeah, I dunno. She had a few friends. Think there was a boyfriend on the scene, but I couldn't give you a name. One girl came in a few times, blonde girl," the manager informed them. Harry almost sighed out loud. A blonde girl did not match the brunette girl that Maggie and Ginny had been told about.

"Don't suppose you got a name did you?" Vicky said tiredly. Harry gave her a look.

"Pippa, I think," the manager said. Thanking her for her time, Harry and Vicky exited the café.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked his friend, gesturing for her to sit down on a bench.

"Harry," she sighed. "I'm fine. I just have a baby at home and I am tired," she told him. Harry nodded and put his arm around her shoulders.

"If you need more time off, Vic, or if you want to look at your hours-" he started.

"No," she snapped quickly. She shook herself. "Sorry, Harry, no. I love work, you know that."

"I know," he said softly, planting a kiss on her temple. "I'm just here if you need me. That's all I'm saying," he promised.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Now, while we've got a second, how is Harley?"

 **XXX**

"Okay, so we have a variety of women who have started showing up in the past three months or so, a variety of different reasons for using drugs," Stacey started sarcastically.

"Yes, thank you, Stacey," Harry interrupted, standing in front of the whiteboard that showed the leads they had so far. "I realise that we don't have much to go on right now, but we are going to figure this out. I know that everyone has found more leads today, so follow those up.

"Ken, Alex, you guys try and figure how we can get some CCTV from Charlie Allen's building to find this brunette woman. The witness having seen her giving him something makes her our best lead at the moment, but brown hair isn't good enough. We need a closer view.

"Ginny, Poppy Parkinson might be difficult to find. I didn't know Pansy had more than two sisters and I don't know if the system will either. It's quite likely she was deleted as soon as her lack of magic became apparent. If you need to, I would talk to Mrs Parkinson, or Camellia or Dahlia. I very much doubt Pansy will speak to you," he informed her with a chuckle. Ginny snorted and agreed.

"Vicky, you chase up DNA on the potion bottle found with the victim. Everyone else, I want you following leads. Mags, you stay with Ginny on this Parkinson thing.

"That is everything. Now, bugger off," Harry said with a grin to his team, to their general approval.

 **XXX**

"Oh, Ginny, look at the state of your hair," were the first words that came out of Molly Weasley's mouth as Ginny arrived at the Burrow for Monday night dinner with her family. "Did you even bother to brush it before you got here?" she fussed. Ginny batted away her mother's hands and, despite how much she wanted to strangle her, gave her a hug in greeting.

"Who's here?" Ginny asked, taking off her coat. She'd had time to go home and get changed, but, clearly, not enough to do anything else with her appearance. At least she wasn't in auror robes. That would have caused a kerfuffle. No, Ginny had gone with a nice top, a pair of jeans and ballet shoes. It was difficult to find something that wouldn't wind her mother up nowadays.

"Oh, Ronnie, and Bill and Fleur, and the kids. George and Angelina should be here soon," Molly said and Ginny nodded. "Your father's in the living room, dear." With a smile, Ginny went to greet her father.

"Ginny," her father cried as she walked into the room. He stood and greeted her warmly with a hug. "I had a meeting with your boss, today," he told her as he gestured for her to sit down on the sofa next to him, plumping up a patchwork cushion for her.

"With Commissioner Robards?" Ginny checked and her dad nodded.

"Just work related, of course, but I did see Deputy Commissioner Potter on his way out," he continued and the other adults in the room, Ron, Bill and Fleur, all looked up with interest. A sort of strangled noise emerged from Ginny's throat. "He said that you are a credit to this family," her father announced to the room proudly.

"Well, of course she is," Ginny's mother said exasperatedly from the door. "She's our Ginny and, of course, she's fantastic at whatever she does." Ginny's heart warmed and she gave her mother a smile. "Of course, that doesn't mean she needs to be doing something so dangerous," Molly muttered as she wandered back into the kitchen. Ginny met her eldest brother's eyes and sighed.

"Are you enjoying working with Mr Potter, Gin?" Bill asked and Ginny nodded, beginning to explain all about the physical training and the others who worked within the office.

"Won't be long until it's you too, Ronnie," Arthur pointed out and Ginny tried to contain her smirk. Her brother's grades were hardly stellar at the Academy. Ron nodded enthusiastically, however.

"Hello!" there was a shout from the door. Ginny jumped up immediately to greet her brother and his wife.

 **XXX**

"So, Harry," Tonks began as they started to dig into their meals, "Sirius reckons you've got a bird on the go."

"A bird?" Teddy spluttered, little giggles rising from his throat like bubbles. Delilah stared between her big brother and Harry and decided to giggle too. A smile rose unbidden to Harry's lips.

"What does that smile mean?" Remus asked, his lips quirking. Harry's lips gaped slightly.

"No! No, I was just smiling- coz- you know- Lilah and Teddy were giggling and, you know, it was- you know-"

"Well, you've not exactly used your skill with words to win this mystery girl over," Tonks said sardonically and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Come on, this is the only conversation I ever have with people. Oh, Harry, who are you dating? Oh, Harry, have you got a girlfriend? I'm not- I'm not looking for anything right now," he finished, slightly lamely. Remus and Tonks shared one of those blasted looks. Sirius and Amelia would do the same thing. It was a married thing. Maybe they were telepathic.

"Can we talk about the baby? Will you tell me if it's a boy or a girl yet?" Harry begged and Tonks cackled evilly. "You've told Sirius!" Harry protested, taking a shot in the dark, using what he knew of Remus and his lack of ability to keep a secret.

"No we haven't!" Tonks said, shooting a look at her husband.

"You so have," Harry said, shaking his head. "How rude. Can you believe this, Lilah?" he asked his goddaughter, who proceeded to hit him on the nose with a spoon. "Lovely."

 **XXX**

"So, Ginny, did you have a nice night out on Friday?" Bill asked her across the table. Ginny closed her eyes in annoyance.

"You've been going out?" Molly shrieked immediately. Victoire and Dominique began to giggle and Fleur spoke to them quickly in French.

"I went out once," Ginny defended, "with my team. I have to know them outside the office."

"And that means you have to go out and get drunk?"

Ginny shrugged. "No, but it's a nice add-on." George snorted into his drink and then grunted as Angelina most likely hit him on the leg. Molly harrumphed. "Anyway, I didn't get that drunk," Ginny lied.

"Didn't stop you shouting at us, did it?" Ron added and Ginny glared at him. Brothers, who'd have them?

"Well, I can't help shouting at you when you come over and embarrass me in front of my team," Ginny muttered. "Anyway, can we not talk about something else? Like, Audrey, you're pregnant."

Audrey, Percy's wife, blinked. "Erm, yes, Ginny. Good observation." Ginny's face flamed. For goodness' sake.

 **XXX**

"Harry! Harry! Everyone!" Alex shouted throughout the offices. Harry looked up from some paperwork he was filling out and eagerly jumped up, pacing over to where Alex and Ken were sat in front of a CCTV viewing device. The rest of the team that wasn't out following leads rushed over to them.

"What are we looking at, Alex, Ken?" Harry questioned, looking at the screen which seemed to show two people speaking to each other. Ken shot a smile at Harry.

"That woman, there, is Clara Beddon and the male is Joe Sitter-"

"Both victims!" Harry said, looking more closely at the screen. This was the first time they had seen two victims interacting with one another. Of course, of the twenty-three who had shown up so far, this was only two, but it was a start. Beddon was seen on screen caressing Sitter's arm and having a conversation for at least two minutes.

"Right, that's Beddon's workplace, so go and talk to them again. Take a picture of Sitter. See if anyone knows how they knew each other or, well, anything, to be honest. You go, Alex, take Rubes. Find me an answer," he begged them. Both of his employees gave him a salute and hurried off to the offices that the two victims had been spotted outside.

Surely, if the two of them knew each other, they had got the drug from the same place. Surely surely surely.

"Oh, guys, while we're here, HP is looking for some players for the quidditch team. We've got two retirements looming and some people who only want to play every now and again. Please, please, pretty please, come sign up?" Harry asked, in the same tone of voice as he asked for answers on the case. Ginny let out a small laugh and asked where to sign her name. Harry grinned, probably too much, only stopping when Stacey announced that she wanted to play too.

 **XXX**

"No one? No one in the whole database?" Harry demanded of Vicky loudly. She flinched, possibly at the volume, possibly at his tone.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she replied quietly. "The only fingerprints on the potions bottle belonged to the girl we found holding it. I don't know what else to say."

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I assume they're looking for a magical signature."

Vicky nodded. "It's much harder to hide," she reminded him, "so it's more likely to give us a positive answer."

"When will we have the results?"

"I don't know," she admitted, "maybe by tomorrow, possibly the day after. They're pretty busy." Harry sighed again and dismissed Vicky, sinking into his desk chair. The papers had started to publish articles about the increasing amounts of deaths. Soon, Harry would have to give a press conference to explain why they had no answers.

With one last sigh, Harry got up to leave. He really shouldn't be late to his workmates' dinner.

 **XXX**

"What happened to this bird you were bringing?" were the words that greeted Harry as he entered the house of Dave and Vera Jennings, holding an expensive bottle of red wine. Dave looked somewhat displeased to see Harry on his own.

"I told you, mate, there is no girl," Harry said back, laughing and handing Dave the wine, which he admired. Dave groaned.

"I'll get the truth out of you somehow, Potter," he swore, leading him into the living room, where Naomi Logan and Frankie Dixon, Sam and Jackie Allen, Mike Allison and Anna McLaughlin and, Owen and Rachel James were lounging on various surfaces. "Vera's in the kitchen. I think Nic and Sabrina are coming too," Dave informed him.

"Brilliant," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "Not even a girl for me to take home, how thoughtless of you."

"You're perfectly capable of finding girls yourself, Potter. It's not our fault you don't," Dave's wife, Vera, called from the kitchen. Harry snickered and sat himself down next to Naomi and Frankie.

"What about that girl from the other night?" Naomi asked and the boys that Harry had been to the gym with let out a groan. Harry rolled his eyes affectionately.

"She- she doesn't matter, that's over," he said definitively. He watched Naomi and Frankie share a look and continued, "it is! It didn't matter. One time thing."

"Sure, sure," Naomi said, wafting her hand to dismiss him and turning to ask Dave about dinner.

 **XXX**

"Vera, my darling, that was fabulous. Can I swap you for Jackie?" Sam Allen declared, kissing Vera's cheek as he and Jackie left for the evening. Jackie slapped his chest, laughing.

"Come on, love, let's get home," she said, sharing an eye roll with Vera. Harry watched as each couple continued to leave. When finally Nicola and Sabrina left, Harry realised he had to go. The problem was, he didn't want to go home to an empty bed and flat.

"Right, I'm off then," Harry announced, pulling himself off the sofa. Dave gave him a smile, shaking his hand and promising to speak to him about the case the next day at work. Harry gave Vera a hug and then left their warm, inviting house, into the cold, dark night.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Harry walked down their short road in Bedford. He did honestly love where he lived; there was nothing wrong with the flat itself. It was the fact that when he went to bed, it wasn't holding the hand of a girl that he loved.

Watching Naomi and Frankie, or any of the others, Harry felt a sort of ache. It wasn't that he felt awkward at the dinner, not that at all. It was that he wanted someone. Was that so much to ask? He had so much love to give, so much free time and attention he wanted to give to someone. Yet, the only girl he wanted at the moment, he couldn't have.

Harry reached the alleyway and apparated away with a sigh, to a lonely bed and a lonely heart.

 **A/N - I AM BACK! It turns out that being home for the summer actually isn't** **conducive** **to doing any writing whatsoever. I am back at uni now and the only thing that seems to work for writing is having something else to do instead. Oh well. Hope you like this chapter! Reading your reviews this week really gave me the motivation to finish this chapter. Onto chapter 6, where we will find: a small incident between Harry and Ginny in which he accidentally hurts her, another trip to the Chimera and the first training session for Harry and Ginny! See you then... (hopefully it will be sooner!)**


	6. Chapter 6

During his daily paperwork session, an auror burst into Harry's office. "Good morning," he said jovially, not looking up from his desk. "Thank you for knocking," he said somewhat sardonically. The auror didn't speak. Finally looking up, Harry found Chloe looking stricken. "What?"

"Another victim, Harry; you'd better come." Harry jumped up and followed the investigative auror to where Vicky, the forensics expert, Maggie, head of witness care within their team, and three other investigative aurors from their team were waiting. In Ken's hand was a portkey.

"Let's go," Harry said, grim-faced. Activating the portkey, Ken led them all to the Shambles, a street in York which blended magic and muggle wares effortlessly. The street was so haphazard that spells to hide magical shops went unnoticed by muggles. However, on this occasion, there was no one to be seen. The whole area had been cordoned off.

The police were already on the scene. Harry pulled out his fake police badge and approached the officer examining the male body that lay dead on the floor. "Cause of death?" Harry asked. The officer shrugged, perplexed.

"We think drugs, but unsure until there's been a post-mortem," she replied, the dazing charms on Harry's badge making her trust him immediately.

"That's our department," Harry said with an easy smile. "We'll take it from here." Not even batting an eyelid, the officer called away her team and they returned to their vehicles. The wonders of magic. In the corner of his eye, Harry saw a flash of Chloe's peroxide blonde hair as she came to kneel next to him.

"The witch who reported it reckoned she recognised the symptoms," Chloe informed him in low tones, adjusting herself on the cobblestones.

"Or recognised this?" Harry said grimly as he pulled a small potions vial from the dead man's jacket. It was the same type of potions bottle as Vicky had sent to have examined by forensics last week. Harry sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Wallet?" he questioned as Chloe fiddled around in the man's pockets. Chloe nodded, successfully retrieving a wallet.

"ID says Donald Michael Butcher, aged 19," Chloe said, not bothering to reprimand her boss as he swore. 19-years-old and dead. "From Thirsk, just down the road," she told him. Harry nodded.

"Vicky, do what you need to do. The rest of you, look around for anything. Ask the crowd if they saw anything, how it happened," Harry ordered them, before taking another look at the body and swearing.

 **XXX**

"He breaks all the fucking patterns!" Harry said, punching the whiteboard. "Not only is he not from London, he's younger than usual, without a job, without the money to buy the drugs really. He's a muggle by all accounts - no wand found on the body. We're searching the close-to database as we speak."

"Vicky's speaking to them about the magical signature, Harry," Ginny said, striding in towards the end of Harry's rant. Harry didn't even allow himself a glance at her. "She said they'll have something within the hour."

"But it does seem to be the same signature as on the first bottle?" Harry checked, not looking away from the board, looking, searching for clues.

"Yes," she replied.

"It's odd we've only found two, isn't it?" Lewis pondered. "Where do the other bottles go? If it's taken as a potion, rather than as a pill, how long is it before they die?"

Stacey spoke up, "it seems to be about twenty minutes, but maybe it affected Butcher faster and that's why he was still in the middle of the busiest street in York."

Harry collapsed onto a chair. Ginny said that she'd go and make a batch of coffee and Harry waved her off. Did Butcher want to make a statement by dying in the oldest street in Britain, on one of very few streets where magic and muggle came together? They'd published the name of the potion and what it contained days ago, so anyone who was buying it knowingly was suicidal, surely, because it killed. Unless they'd not seen any papers. So did Butcher know what it was? Did he want people to see him die?

Or were they not telling them what the potion contained? Was it being sold as something else? A cure for something perhaps? Was it murder? Were the victims being targeted? Harry threw his head back. If only they could find out what these people had in common, then they'd know. But, so far, that appeared to be nothing, other than that they'd got the potion from London.

But Butcher hadn't. Had he travelled to London to get this thing, this possible cure? Was it rare and well-advertised by this new gang in London? Or had the gang been unnoticed and spread as far as York? Were there dealers all over the country, over the world? Who knew.

"News, boss," Vicky's voice came from the door. Harry stood up immediately. Every auror in the room looked up from what they were doing. "The signature is from the manufacturers," she told him and her tone told Harry that she knew that he was going to be disappointed. Harry swore. "Obviously it's the same manufacturer because it was the same signature, so they seem to be from the same batch, provided that we don't believe in coincidences."

"Which we don't," Harry sighed. "Fuck!" he swore, slinging the file across the room.

Where it proceeded to hit Ginny right in the face, making her spill a jug of coffee down her legs. "Shit!" Harry swore again, jumping up. "Ginny, oh my life, I am so sorry," he begged, drying her off immediately. He fixed the jug with barely a thought. Her face was bright red and she didn't seem able to speak. "Ginny, I'm so sorry," he continued, leading her over to a chair. She shook her head, ginger head shaking and eyes clearing.

"It's fine, Harry," she replied, staring down at her jean-covered legs. "My legs don't even hurt," she said slowly in a confused tone. Harry's eyes were tracing the pattern on the carpet.

Maggie chuckled from her seat in the corner, "You wouldn't believe how often we spill that jug, girl. It's charmed."

"Oh," Ginny said, her face still ridiculously red. Looking up, Harry saw and found her endearing. She tucked her hair behind her ear. Harry wanted to pull it back out. "Well, that was embarrassing," she said with a giggle.

"I'm so sorry," Harry said again, in pleading tones. "Are you okay?"

Ginny laughed and nodded. "Harry, it's fine. All is, I'll probably have a black eye tomorrow. You threw that file with some force, Harry," she admonished him. Harry laughed and wrapped an arm around her, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

As he would to any of the women in his department, he assured himself. The lack of surprise from anyone in his department assured him of this, also.

"Drinks are on me tonight," he promised and Ginny cackled.

"A win as far as I'm concerned."

 **XXX**

With a 12-8 the next day, HPHPHP were at the Chimera that evening. Frustrated by dead end after dead end, alcohol was top on their list of things that would fix it. Harry got the first round in and the team collectively sighed as the first taste hit their lips. There was nothing worse than a case that would not open up for them.

"I'm gonna get fucked," Ruby announced, downing the vodka orange that Harry had bought her.

"Here, here," Ginny said, clinking her pint glass together with Ruby's and sharing a laugh.

"I don't even want to think about the case for the next few hours. I want to pretend it does not exist," Harry told them forcefully. Ginny tittered next to him. "Someone tell me something interesting. Alex! Bet you've got a story for us," he demanded of the Mexican-born auror, hitting him on the back. Alex coughed slightly.

"Oh, well, I guess this is as good a time as any," he said, scratching his head. "Amelia is pregnant!" Alex announced. Gasps and cheers lit up around the table. Harry clapped him on the back and called over a waiter to bring a bottle of champagne.

"Alex, mate, that is fantastic," Harry told him genuinely, "that has properly cheered me up." Alex gave him a grin that split his face.

"Does your wife not want you at home tonight? How long have you known? Are you having a boy or a girl? What are you going to name them?" Chloe asked in rapid succession, desperate for more information. Harry snorted.

"Someone's broody," he jested in a sing-song voice. Chloe threw a nut at him and he caught it swiftly.

"Are you allowed to be broody if you're single?" she questioned, lifting her drink as if in toast, and Ken chuckled, patting her shoulder.

"Chloe, darling, you're barely thirty!" he protested and glared at Lewis, Cameron and Ruby as they started to make clock noises.

"She's a witch! She can have children until she's like ninety!" Stacey said and Chloe snorted.

"Cheers for the back up, Stace, but I'd rather not leave it til then." Ginny giggled, finishing off her drink.

"Don't worry, Chloe, we can be single pringles together," she said, grasping hands across the table, Ginny's plain fingernails rather paling in comparison to Chloe's long red fake ones. They giggled as Chloe left a kiss on Ginny's knuckles.

"Are there really only three of us?" Harry said, his mouth dropping slightly. "Well, I feel like a failure!"

"Harry, you're 26 and the Deputy Commissioner of the Magical Law Enforcement department of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland," Chloe declared dramatically, "I'd hardly call you a failure."

Harry rolled his eyes and began to pour out the champagne for everyone. "Still live alone, though," he groused. Ginny punched him in the shoulder.

"We're trying to be happy here! Alex's wife is pregnant. Someone else give us some news!" Ginny demanded.

"You're awfully demanding for a new girl, you know," Maggie commented dryly.

"Yes, well, I am new, so you should be kind to me," Ginny said, shrinking slightly with a giggle. "Let's play a game!"

 **XXX**

Harry and Ginny stumbled into their building at two o'clock in the morning. They'd stayed at the pub until closing time, then blindly stumbled around Liverpool for a while, as members of the team gradually left. By the end, it was just Harry and Ginny, sat on the steps outside Lime Street station with a portion of chips and gravy - a first for Ginny.

"Does this mean you're indebted to me for life then?" Harry said when they had locked the door behind them. Passing the empty living room, they headed straight to the lift.

"Just for introducing me to chips and gravy?" Ginny scoffed. "Pal, you hit me in the face with a file today!"

Harry snorted as he pressed the button for the lift. "That's not fair, darling, that was an accident! I purposefully introduced you to the wonder that is chips and gravy," he slurred. Ginny giggled, leaning against him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and placed a kiss on her messy hair. "Your hair's a mess," he commented.

She shoved him in the side. "Mean!" she said, pouting. Harry chuckled and poked her in the side. She gasped in shock and poked him back. Poking turned to pushing and soon enough, two very drunk aurors were lay on the floor outside the lift, which had arrived quite a while ago at this point.

Ginny began to laugh raucously. "I never had this much fun before, you know, Harry," she declared when she'd got all of her laughs out.

He propped himself up on his elbow and turned at her. "Really?"

She shook her head. "I loved the Academy and I love my mates, but this is like real life fun, you know?" Harry chuckled. "Hey, don't mock me."

"But it's so easy," Harry faux-whinged. Ginny pouted, leaving Harry to reach across and brush it with his thumb.

"Harry," Ginny whispered. Who knew who moved first? They were kissing before they even noticed that they were. Lips against lips and bodies against bodies. They would never know how far they would have gone.

A cough broke them apart. Ginny's face flamed red as she looked up. It was a woman from the building, fifth floor, about sixty years old. "I have been on a plane for eight hours! Is this what I need to come back to?" she screeched. Harry covered his ears with his hands.

"Could you speak a little bit quietly?" Ginny asked politely. She pointed at Harry as she said, "he's old, so his ears are sensitive." Harry broke out into giggles.

The lady, with her suitcase and massive pink handbag, harrumphed and got into the open lift. "I shall be reporting you to the landlord!"

"Have fun with that!" Harry called back with a snort. "We should go to bed, Gin," he said, jumping up and offering her a hand. Ginny nodded and Harry nodded too. "Separate beds."

"Separate beds," Ginny repeated.

 **XXX**

At 12 o'clock, Harry greeted Ginny at her desk with a mug of coffee - dash of milk and no sugar - and leaned against the divider between her desk and Robin's. "Good afternoon," he said and she looked up at him. Spotting the coffee, her eyes flashed.

"You're too good to me," she said, taking the huge mug of caffeine and blowing him a kiss. "I'm just gonna write up my report from my visit to the family member of that victim and then I'm free to run leads," she replied and Harry grinned. She really was fitting in well.

"Awesome, I want you and Robin to go and speak to the every shop or market stall owner on the shambles. See if anyone knows him. All I know is that he's got a cousin who's a muggleborn - she's a poor witch so she gave up on magic and works at a primary school in Leeds. Ken's visiting her this afternoon," Harry informed her, easily responding to each question that he anticipated from her.

"I'll be in my office if you need-"

"Harry!" Vicky called from her desk on the other side of the office. "There's an LEA from AM here to see you."

AM. Anna McLaughlin. Witness Care.

Lead.

Calling for Maggie, Harry walked as fast as possible over to the young law enforcement assistant (LEA) who was waiting by his office door. Quite tall and falsely attractive, the young man seemed to be like most LEAs, who thought they were aurors and helped the department massively. Of course, there were many who were good and could actually do things without help. But there were far too many who lived up their own arseholes.

Harry shook the LEA's hand nonetheless and asked for his name on the walk to the witness care department. He provided it - Benji. Benji wanted to be an auror but didn't get the grades at Hogwarts. Like most LEAs. Rather than get the grades, you could work for five years as an LEA and receive a reference if you still wanted the job. Most dropped out.

Upon arriving in Witness Care, Harry dispensed with Benji's unnecessary accompanying service and found Anna swiftly. Maggie entered the room while Anna filled Harry in on the facts: the young woman in the interrogation room knew Clara Beddon _and_ Joe Sitter. The only two victims that they had seen conversing.

Tuning into the room, Harry watched as Maggie greeted the girl, whose name Anna provided Harry with: Eliza Beddon, sister of Clara. As Maggie worked, Harry once again appreciated the need for someone like Maggie in every department. She was easily the best at what she did, perhaps beaten only by Anna.

Within twenty minutes, they knew the whole story. Margaret and John Beddon had three daughters and a son: Clara, Eliza, Joanna and Peter. On Joanna's eleventh birthday, when her older twin sisters were fourteen, they received a visitor and, the next September, Joanna was swept away to Hogwarts. In her third year, Peter got cancer. When Jo came home for Christmas, they had already told them that it was terminal. The whole family pleaded with her, over and over, to do something, to use her magic. Jo couldn't and the whole family, except Eliza, blamed her. Jo moved out the next summer and they never saw her again, until her seventeenth birthday, when the family she had moved in with told her that she had killed herself.

Eliza watched Clara deteriorate. Their parents both died within the next three years and it was just Eliza and Clara left. Clara would make comments. If only she had magic. She could bring them back from the dead, etcetera. They could be together again. Eliza knew this wasn't true. Jo had told them that even magic had its limits.

Anyway, Eliza sent Clara to meet the family that had looked after Jo when their own family hadn't. That family, too, was muggleborn. Their son, Joe, had fallen in love with their Jo and, when they killed each other, blamed himself. Clara and Joe started spending more and more time together. They started seeing each other, or Eliza had thought so at least. Then, a week after Eliza had spoken to her sister about how odd it was that she was dating her dead sister's boyfriend, Clara turned up dead. And then so did Joe.

"Wow," Harry muttered. Eliza was officially alone in the world, no family. She was unmarried, unengaged in any sort of relationship. Harry had thought that he was hard done by, at times. There was no comparison to a woman who had lost her brother, two sisters and both parents.

Harry wandered back to HPHPHP, Maggie by his side, head full of thoughts. "I organised Eliza some therapy," Maggie said in the corridor entrance to the main HP common room. Harry nodded.

"Good."

"Harry, stop wallowing," Maggie ordered. "Let's go in and discuss what this means."

Harry chuckled and laid a hand on his colleague's shoulder. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Okay, Mags. You lead the way," he said, smiling.

 **XXX**

"So, you think it was some sort of joint suicide?" Ginny shouted through Harry's apartment that evening.

"What did I say about leaving the case at work?" Harry called back from his bedroom. Ginny nodded, pondering her surroundings. It was obviously much nicer than her apartment, hers being empty and all. Her back was starting to ache from sleeping on the couch downstairs. Harry had caught her there too many times now and she didn't want him to find out what a desperate state she was in.

"Who is our landlord?" was Ginny's next question. Harry emerged at his bedroom door, in full quidditch gear, finally. Ginny had been waiting fifteen minutes.

"Why do you ask?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"The other night, you mentioned something about that lady not being able to contact them," Ginny replied, biting her lip. Harry scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh, well, the thing is, I own this building," he said, dragging out the first five words. Ginny's jaw dropped.

"You _what_?"

Harry shrugged. "My parents left me some money and the goblins said that investing in property in London was a good idea. I own twenty buildings throughout the city, but this penthouse was my favourite," he informed her, picking up the case of quidditch balls from the table.

"So, I pay my rent to you?" Ginny questioned, fully away that he wanted the conversation to be over.

Harry sighed, stopping by the door. "Ginny, please don't make this weird. I'm no different just because I've got money, you know. It doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter to you because you've got it," Ginny grumbled. Sighing again, Harry put down the heavy case and approached Ginny, putting a hand on either shoulder.

"Ginny, I don't want this money. I would give you the whole lot, if you wanted it, just so you don't fall out with me over something so silly," he told her. Ginny smiled.

"The whole lot is unnecessary," she replied. "An Indian takeaway after training will do me just fine," Ginny said, giggling as Harry shoved her away jokingly.

He sighed dramatically. "If that is the price of your friendship, I will pay it a thousand times," he told her and, giggling, Ginny dragged them out of the apartment.

A/N: Good afternoon! I'm submitting this in the university library as a very annoying couple are flirting next to me. Library dates are the worst (I am not bitter at never having been asked on one, whatsoever). ANYWAY, here is a new chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. I LOVE REVIEWS. So, if you fancy it, it actually will make me write faster because I know I'm writing for someone else. Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you soonnnnn (probably. depending how fast I'm writing).


	7. Chapter 7

"Wotcherwotcherwotcherwotcher!" were the words that exploded from Teddy Lupin as he ran and collided straight into Harry's legs. Letting out an oof, Harry collected the four year old into his arms. It was Friday, and that meant having lunch with Tonks while she was on maternity leave.

"Hey, Harry," Tonks said, kissing Harry on the cheek. Harry returned the favour and gave a sleepy Delilah, comfortable in her mother's arms, one too. "Business good?" she teased. Harry rolled his eyes.

"All is as usual, Tonks. Have you been to see Jeremy?" Harry queried, referring to the auror who was covering Tonks' maternity leave as the head of the department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Tonks nodded, depositing Delilah in Harry's big office chair.

"Mmhmm, couldn't be running better," she said bitterly.

"Probably running more smoothly," Harry replied cheekily, avoiding the palm of Tonks' hand against his cheek. "I'm joking, Tonks, we're all missing you terribly. You should hear Naomi go on!"

Tonks smiled, taking a seat on the sofa in the corner of the room and running her hand over her heavily pregnant belly. "She came over last week. I miss her so much." Harry nodded.

"Dya want a drink or go straight away?" Harry asked her, reaching to grab his jacket with the hand that wasn't holding Teddy.

"I'm happy to go, kiddo." She stood and went to grab Delilah.

"I'll get her, Tonks," Harry said, holding a hand up. "Teddybear can walk now, 'cause he's a big boy, aren't you Teds?"

Immediately, Teddy began wriggling out of Harry's arms. Tonks rolled her eyes fondly at Harry who winked back. Scooping up Delilah in his arms, Harry took Teddy's little hand and led the family out of his office.

"Tonks!" Harry heard from the other side of the office. He turned to find Ginny approaching in a hurry.

"Ginny!" Tonks cried and embraced Harry's auror into a hug. Harry's jaw dropped in absolute shock. He felt like two worlds were colliding. What on earth was going on?

"How are you? Man alive, when are you due?" Ginny laughed. Tonks chuckled, giving her a loving punch to the arm. Was this a dream? How good friends were they? How had Tonks never mentioned her?

"Any day now," Tonks admitted with a sigh. "My lovely godson is taking me out for a fancy lunch," she told Ginny, patting Harry's arm. Harry furrowed his brow and gave Tonks a funny look.

"You know we're going to Pizza Hut right?" he said. "And for the last time, you're barely older than me. You are not my godmother!"

"Okay, I'm sorry, your step-godmother."

"I mean, technically, Remus is my adopted godfather," Harry said with a smirk.

Tonks gave him a look. "I am nine months pregnant, so give me a break." Harry chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, popping a kiss on her bright blue hair.

"Mummyyyyyy," a voice down low whined.

"Oh and who are these lovely two?" Ginny cooed. Harry grinned down at Teddy who was now stamping his feet.

"Teds, why don't you introduce yourself to Ginny?" Harry prompted. Teddy, cheeky little rascal that he was, stuck out his hand and rigorously shook Ginny's. Harry snorted. "Ginny, this is Teddy, Remus and Tonks' son and this," Harry continued, gesturing to a sleepy Delilah in his arms, "is Delilah."

"And this is," Tonks started, gesturing to her stomach. Before she continued, though, she looked at Harry and gestured for Ginny to come close. Harry gaped.

"If she's just told you what that baby's name is, or even its gender, you are telling me as soon as I'm back from lunch or you're fired," Harry said, pointing at her. Ginny giggled and Harry allowed a smile to curl on his lips. "Come on, Tonks," he hurried, "I want a pizza."

"Okay, okay," Tonks said, grabbing one of Ginny's hands and giving it a squeeze. "I want a catch up, Weasley! When I've given birth, you can come over and meet the baby and we can have a proper natter," Tonks said enthusiastically.

"Yes, definitely!" Ginny agreed. Harry wondered if he should feel concerned. Tonks was usually quite good at sussing out a situation. He could not let on that he fancied Ginny at lunch today, otherwise his step-adopted-godmother would undoubtedly talk to Ginny about him.

"Pizza, mumma, pizza!" Teddy hurried and Harry grinned.

"Pizza," Delilah chirped in sleepily. Harry chuckled and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"See you all later," Harry called, giving his team a wave as he and Tonks approached the floo out of the office.

 **XXX**

As Ginny rushed to meet her dad for lunch, she considered seeing Tonks again. The metamorphmagus had been Charlie's girlfriend for three years, their last two years at Hogwarts and then one bad year afterwards. With Charlie in Romania and Tonks in London training to be an auror, it just had not worked out. Ginny had been devastated, just ten years old, when they broke up.

They'd spoken since, of course. Tonks had been a frequent visitor during the War. At one point, her mum had wanted Bill and Tonks to become an item, despite how odd that would've been for Charlie. Since the war, however, Ginny and Tonks just hadn't really spoken. She'd sent her a letter when she had started at the Academy and they'd kept that up for a while but they'd petered off. To say it was a pleasant surprise to see her again was an understatement.

And with Harry! Ginny knew that Tonks had married Remus Lupin, who had had a large role in the Order towards the end of the war, but she had known nothing of Remus' connection to Harry, or the Potters, whatsoever.

Harry holding the children was so sweet too. Ginny didn't really want to consider the way her heart had panged. It probably had more to do with the children than Harry anyway. Teddy, the little boy with blue hair, and sleepy little Delilah on Harry's shoulder. They were precious. And Tonks had told her some information about the next baby! Evidently, they hadn't told Harry yet and Ginny was not about to now. Tonks didn't have very long to go now. Harry could wait a few more days, or weeks.

Pushing the way Harry had kissed Delilah's forehead out of her mind, Ginny knocked on her dad's office and entered upon his call. "Hey, Dad," she greeted.

 **XXX**

"So, you didn't tell me Ginny was on your team!" Tonks cried when they had finally ordered at the restaurant. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I didn't even know you knew her!" Harry protested, looking up from the colouring book Teddy was preoccupied with.

"I know all the Weasleys, don't I? They were part of the Order!"

"Oh," Harry said stupidly. He did in fact know that the Weasleys were part of the Order. They were at the Final Battle, too. Briefly, Harry wondered if Ginny had been there.

"And," Tonks sighed, "I was dating Ginny's brother Charlie for three years."

"What?" Harry exclaimed in shock. "I didn't think anyone existed before Remus for you."

Tonks caressed her overly large pregnancy bump. "We were together from the time we were 16 until we were 19. Before you say it, of course Remus knows. At school, everything was perfect, but then we left. He went to Romania and I was at the Academy. There just wasn't enough love there to work at it," she said with a shrug.

"But, while we were still dating, I used to spend a lot of time at the Burrow and Ginny was the only one home. She was only ten," Tonks said with a small smile, "and she was absolutely obsessed with a certain hero called Harry Potter."

Harry spluttered on the water he had been drinking. "Excuse me?"

Tonks chuckled. "Oh yeah, she had all the books and the dolls. Every Christmas she'd ask for more Harry Potter information. It was all she ever wanted. Once," Tonks started with a laugh, "she made me shorten my hair so I could pretend to be you so that she could marry Harry Potter."

"Oh my life," Harry said, his jaw dropping. He could not wait to talk to Ginny about this. She had not let on about it at all.

"You better not use this against her, Potter," Tonks said suddenly, pointing a finger at him. "I don't want Ginny being mad at me."

"You've not spoken to her in how long? I'm sure it'll be fine," Harry said, waving off her objections. Tonks scoffed.

"Oh, I just want some pizza!" she complained, rubbing her stomach, and Harry chuckled.

"Pizza pizza pizza!" Tonks' son shouted.

 **XXX**

"Dad, you know I obviously miss you all, but living away, it's like I'm finally an adult! I'm twenty-five and I only just feel like an adult," Ginny tried to explain. Her father had been trying in vain for the whole lunch to convince her to move back home.

"But, Ginny, surely, with starting a new job, maybe looking after a new flat is just too much," he continued. Ginny sighed. If she was honest, the only thing she was doing in her flat was eating. The rest of the time, she spent in the living room downstairs, sleeping or wishing that Harry would come and spend time with her. She could hardly tell her father that, though, could she? She'd spent ages on Monday evening at dinner trying to convince her family that they couldn't visit her flat just yet.

"Honestly, Dad, I'm enjoying the challenge. I love it," she told him honestly. So far, there was very little about this life that she didn't like. Her dad finally sighed and gave up.

"What's it like working with DC Potter, then?" he said, changing the subject in an effort to save the lunch. Ginny smiled gratefully. "I've always got on with him. He seems very humble, but his presence does command respect."

Ginny nodded. "He's very lovely," she said quietly.

"He seemed to be very pleased with you," Arthur said. Ginny nodded, swallowing the rest of her sandwich.

"Yes, I hope so." Sensing Ginny's discomfort possibly, her dad changed the subject yet again, this time to Bill and Fleur's daughters, Victoire and Dominique. On this subject, Ginny could never be uncomfortable or bored.

 **XXX**

"Right, team, hope you've had a lovely lunch," Ken began, taking over from where Harry would usually stand. "Harry's running a little bit late helping Assistant Commissioner Tonks," he explained this turn up of events. "Lists are on the board, so, partners, take a task and go together. Maggie and Ginny, you need to stay behind," he finished.

The team, showing their competitiveness, rushed over to the board as fast as possible in order to end up with the most interesting task. Quickly, there were groans as Ruby and Cameron got left with paperwork. Most other partners rushed out to follow up on potentially useless leads, with only Alex and Lewis left to go and help next door's case.

Maggie and Ginny were ordered to go and work on their development books. Every week, Ginny had to fill in information about how the week was going. With very few leads to follow up on at the moment, the free time allowed Ginny to be able to get the work done at work, rather than at home in the evening. Maggie's book was a routine book for all Inspectors. Details had to be filled in every week like Ginny's.

So, the two of them sat down in their opposite facing desks and began to fill in each section. The work was tedious, but it was better than watching another parent cry, Ginny supposed.

An hour later, when Ginny was nearly finished, Harry burst out of his office. Absently, Ginny wondered how long he had been in there. "We've got a match! Finally! Shambles victim," he said and Maggie, Ginny, Ruby and Cameron jumped up from their boring work. "Ginny, Maggie, let's go. Rubes, Cam, get that paperwork done!" he called, summoning Ginny and Maggie into his office.

"Fuck you, Harry!" Cameron called back. Harry chuckled and closed the door.

"Okay, so Butcher has a muggle mother and stepfather. His birth father died when he was six. His sister was a muggleborn, obviously. Daisy Butcher, the sister, died before she could attend Hogwarts - in 1997," Harry said with a grimace. Maggie swore.

"Murder?"

"Looks like it was death eaters, yeah," Harry agreed. "So, we've got an address, now. Fancy it?"

"Of course," Ginny said and Harry grinned at her.

"Brill. I'll sidealong both of you, because I know the area," he informed them and they both nodded. "Let's go to the apparition room."

 **XXX**

When Harry had finally got the information from Research, he had felt downtrodden to say the least. Donald Butcher was from Little Whinging, Surrey, not York as they had previously assumed. Harry even recognised the street. It wasn't too far from where Harry had spent the first thirteen years of his life, until Sirius had taken him away.

The memories Harry had there were awful. He had rushed out to find people to go with him. He couldn't have faced going there alone. When he saw Ginny, he suddenly realised that he wanted her with him when he returned there. He didn't know how to process that information.

They arrived in Little Whinging, in an alley between Hedge Lane and Privet Drive. The Butchers lived on Hedge Lane, a street that Harry remembered all too well from the times in which he wandered around Little Whinging, doing anything but go back to that wretched house.

The houses brought back horrid memories for him and Harry had to take a deep breath in order to focus on the case in task. Clearly, all the houses had been built at the same time because they were identical to the house Harry had grown up in.

"Over here," Harry summoned them, heading towards 26 Hedge Lane. In front of the house were two relatively nice cars. The family were doing well for themselves then. Harry was sure that they would trade it all in for their son and daughter back.

Knocking loudly, Harry stepped back and took out his police badge. An older woman, probably about Maggie's age, opened the door. After Harry explained who they were, she invited them in and offered them some tea, which they accepted graciously.

"Mrs Butcher, is your husband in?" Harry asked. She shook her head and offered no more information.

"My two other children are upstairs."

"Would we be able to speak to them about Donald after we've spoken to you?" Harry requested and Mrs Butcher agreed, tears flickering in her eyes.

At this point, Maggie took over the questioning. Harry sat back, taking notes, as he observed Ginny doing also. "Did you ever notice a change in your son, Mrs Butcher?" Maggie asked.

She shook her head, a few graying hairs flying loosely. "No, he was the loveliest of boys," the lady told them earnestly. Harry thought he picked up a twinge of a Welsh accent. "He stayed that way. He was quieter, I suppose, after Daisy died. She was his youngest sister and they'd always been very close. My other two children feel they've lost their bookends now," she said with a laugh that Harry knew was forced.

"Did you ever even supposed that your son had found an interest in drugs?" Maggie questioned carefully. Mrs Butcher shook her head, pressing her fingers against her eyes to stem the tears.

"I just can't believe that he ever would. His father was killed in car crash and the driver was on drugs at the time. My Donald, he'd never touch the stuff. He promised me," she said weepily. Harry took notes on that.

"Do you know whether your son was in a relationship at the time of his death?"

And the questioning continued. Mrs Butcher was clearly a strong woman, kicked down by two of her children's deaths within ten years of one another. She stood, brushing the biscuit crumbs from her skirt onto the floor and called for her other two children, Dana and Della. She then excused herself to the kitchen.

The two girls were close in age, aged seventeen and eighteen. Maggie asked similar questions to the ones she had asked their mother. Della, the older sister, grew angry quickly when Maggie mentioned drugs, but a touch from Dana to her arm calmed her slightly.

"Where is your stepfather?" Maggie asked interestedly. The two girls shared a look.

"He took Donald's death hard. They got on better than any of us. He- he's probably at the pub," Dana whispered.

"Dana!" Della reproached.

"What? It's true!" she shot back. Della rolled her eyes. Maggie shared a look with Harry.

"Are we done here?" Della asked and Maggie sighed and released her. Dana stayed for a moment.

With tears in her eyes, Dana turned to the aurors, "It wasn't just Donald's death that hit Dad hard, it was Daisy's. Dad was obsessed with magic from the second he knew that it existed. We got the letter, you see, before she was told she couldn't go. Daisy and Dad, they used to love it. Daisy bought a wand before the evil wizards told her she wasn't allowed to. She was playing with it in her secret garden at the park," Dana admitted, "and that's how they found her. We found her there, dead, cut open and bled out," Dana said, a sob choking out from her throat. Harry closed his eyes in pain.

"You'd think it would make Dad less obsessed with magic. It didn't. He was sure that, if one of us could do magic, we could bring her back. Donald and Dad, they were obsessed with the idea. It's the only thing they've talked about for years. But, Donald, I think he became depressed the more their ideas led to nothing. I- I think he might have tried to kill himself. My dad, he thinks so too."

 **XXX**

Dana's chilling statement stayed with the three aurors as they left the house, giving their deepest apologies to the family for any wizarding influence on the death of their son. The three of them stayed quiet as they wandered back to the alleyway where they could apparate back to the office. Harry wanted to grab Ginny's hand. He felt as though he needed the support.

Killing a girl in Harry Potter's park must have been too much of an opportunity for the death eaters to pass up.

"Harry?" a voice shocked Harry out of his stupor. No, no, no. Looking up, Harry found himself face to face with his cousin, Dudley. "Harry? It is you!" he said jubilantly.

Since the war, Harry had seen his family once, when he had told them that the war was over and that they could go back to their house. Sirius had been with him, as well as Remus, whose job had been to hold Sirius back when the Dursleys were particularly rude.

"Dudley," Harry said, a bit tersely. At this point, Harry finally noticed the short woman at Dudley's side, and the child that was clinging to her hand. A child with eyes just like Harry's. The sight shocked him. He sometimes forgot that Dudley was even related to his mother.

"Ruby, Ruby, this is my cousin, Harry. We grew up together," Dudley said excitedly. Harry was a bit confused as to Dudley's reaction to seeing him.

"Hi," Harry said, finally stopping being rude, "I'm Harry. Like Dudley said, we're cousins." Ginny and Maggie were giving Harry odd looks. "These are two of my colleagues, Ginny and Maggie," Harry introduced.

"Mr Potter, it is wonderful to meet you," Ruby said in a quiet voice. Narrowing his eyes, Harry focused in on her knowledge of his surname. If he was a worse person, he'd look into her mind. "I'm a squib, Mr Potter, well, Harry, I guess, since we're family. My maiden name is Parkinson."

"Parkinson?" Harry said in shock. Ginny and Maggie had both had a start, too. "As in Pansy and Poppy Parkinson?" Ruby nodded.

"My father is their father's brother."

Harry forced a smile onto his face as he said, "and who's this?" referring to the little girl.

"This is Rosey," Ruby announced proudly. "Rosey, can you tell your Uncle Harry how old you are?"

"I'm three!" she announced, holding up three stubby fingers. Harry didn't have to fake a smile this time.

"Harry, you should come round for dinner one night," Dudley said and his tone was so honest that Harry was shocked into agreeing. "Next Wednesday?" he suggested before Harry could change his mind. Harry agreed and then hurried his aurors along, back to the apparition point.

 **XXX**

By Saturday morning, Harry had stopped thinking about Dudley, almost. His wife, and her family, were constantly on his mind. He'd looked her up the previous afternoon in the archives and found her birth certificate, her squib certificate and her marriage certificate to Dudley. He also found Rosalie Dursley's birth certificate with little effort. Her birthday was the coming Friday, two days after Harry would be visiting.

"Come on, Potter!" Harry heard from the door and he rolled his eyes. He was in full auror robes, ready for their first patrol of the auror year, at the Puddlemere-Holyhead game. Grabbing the door handle and opening it, he allowed Ginny access to his flat. "Are you quite ready? We need to be at Holyhead in ten minutes."

Ginny was also in her full auror robes, but her neck was adorned in a Holyhead Harpies scarf. Harry scoffed, approaching her and removing the scarf from her neck. "You cannot show bias, Cadet Weasley," he said, probably too close to her ear. Her eyes rolled. "Your eyes will get permanently stuck in that position, you know."

"Oh, coming from you, Potter," she mocked. Harry laughed.

"You eaten?"

Getting an approval from Ginny, Harry took one banana for himself and hurried them along, out of the anti-apparition wards he had set on the building.

"You excited for your first patrol?" Harry asked her as they descended the stairs.

"I have done them before you know, in Academy."

"Yeah, but you can actually do things now," Harry said. Ginny nodded.

"I suppose. I'm just excited to watch the game, if I'm honest," she snickered. Harry gave her a look. "I mean, obviously, I will watch wherever I am told to watch," she amended, "but I am going to enjoy being in the atmosphere."

"Better."

The apparition point was by the bins. Harry, crazy auror man that he was, received a notification every time somebody used it. "Let's go."

They arrived at the Holyhead apparition point in a sea of green. Ginny grinned at Harry, who felt outnumbered. Puddlemere's colours were much rarer in the approach to the stadium. "Come on, loser, let's go find out where they want us."

Francis Dixon, head of the Auror department of Magical Games and Sports, and Owen James, head of Transportation Crime and Security, were found liasing with the ministry's head of Magical Games and Sports. "Potter!" Francis cried as he saw him approaching, "and little Miss Weasley. You're both on Gwenog Jones End," he informed them, checking his chart. Harry nodded. "We're not expecting trouble, so you should be able to enjoy the game," he told them with a wink. Harry and Ginny laughed, heading off to the opposite end of the stadium that had been named for the most successful manager at the Harpies, Gwenog Jones.

By the time the game began, Harry had positioned himself and Ginny in suitable places, where they could see each other, see the entire end and see the match. It was perfect. They each had a pair of omnioculars in order to watch the crowd and Harry had a feeling they'd be watching their teams play too.

As they watched the players fly, Harry remembered (not that he ever needed reminding) why he had been so attracted to Ginny that first night, before they knew anything about each other except their first names. She was so passionate. Since spending more time with her, Harry had learned that she was this passionate about everything she loved. It was so attractive.

Oh, Harry just needed to admit it: he really liked her. It was rather pathetic really. At least he knew that she liked him too. That was something at least.

Just as he thought this, Puddlemere scored. Harry let out a whoop. "Oh, fuck off, Potter!" he heard from the next row along. Harry snorted and stuck his finger up at her.

 **XXX**

The Harpies had won. Harry had not been happy. In fact, Ginny had cackled when he had stalked off upstairs to his apartment. It had been very amusing to watch.

The game hadn't been very long. It had all been over by one. They'd grabbed a sandwich from the café near their flats and then headed back home. Ginny wanted to finish her book and Harry wanted to sulk.

The next morning, Ginny woke up excited for her first game as part of the HP quidditch team. It had been so long since she'd played a competitive game of quidditch and she was really looking forward to getting back into it. She'd put on the robes Harry had given her on Friday. They were red and silver. Ginny wondered if Harry had originally tried for red and gold but that was too Hogwarts house-based. It wasn't really the most attractive colour for her, but she was just so happy to be wearing quidditch robes again.

Strapping on her quidditch boots, Ginny considered the rest of their team. The other two chasers were Juls Hardy and Izzy Waters. They'd played well together on their first practice. Ginny was sure that, with a few more practices, they'd be far less rusty. HPHPHP itself was fairly well represented. Alex took keeper position and Ruby was one of the beaters, alongside Eula Hoffman, an investigative action auror from HPBNDN. It was a strong team, finished off with captain Harry Potter as the seeker.

"Where the heck are my gloves?" Ginny muttered under her breath, just as Harry knocked on her door. Flicking her wand to open it, she continued her search through boxes.

"What the hell?" Harry commented. Ginny stared at the box that she was looking through, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. "Ginny, where is all your stuff?"

Ginny laughed nervously, finally locating her quidditch gloves at the bottom of the box and looking up to find Harry staring at her. "The thing is, Harry, erm-"

"Do you even have a bed?" he asked her incredulously. Ginny shook her head with a sigh.

"Look, Harry, I needed to move out of my parents and I couldn't find anywhere cheap enough for me to put down a deposit and buy furniture, so I just put down a deposit on this place and figured I could just sleep on the floor until I got paid! And it actually worked out better because of that couch downstairs," she said contemplatively.

"I- what- Ginny, you should've told me."

"What? So you could look at me with that pity in your eyes like you are right now?" she questioned with a scoff. "Come on, Harry, it's fine. There's a week left and then I can go and buy a bed."

"And a sofa? And a table? Bloody hell, Ginny, I could have leant you some money!" he said to her.

"That! Right there, this is not what I want. I want to take care of myself," she demanded. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Why? What's the point? I could lend you the money and you could pay me back in a week!"

"No! Harry, you don't get it! For once, I want to do something right!"

"And sleeping downstairs where anyone could find you is right? Don't be stupid, Ginny."

"To be honest, Harry, I don't see how it is any of your business!"

Harry spluttered, "well, I'm your boss! So, in my capacity as your boss AND as your captain, I order you to sleep in my spare room, in the spare bed, until Friday," he said, trailing off towards the end, "that is, if you want to."

Ginny smiled and sighed, finally giving in. "Alright. I guess that would be acceptable."

A/N - What's this? An update? From TT after just four days? No, surely not!

AND YET...

Here it is! Can you believe it? I've had so much work on at uni and then I've done five shifts at Starbucks this week and SOMEHOW I've written my longest chapter yet (and, yes, I realise that it's not exactly a novel in length, but it was 12 whole pages, so shush). So, yes. Here it is. AND YOU CAN STOP ASKING ME WHEN HARRY IS GOING TO FIND OUT GINNY HAS NO FURNITURE NOW. They had to get to a good enough place for him to have to ask her to move in with him (albeit temporarily).

I've had some fab ideas for this story's future, I'm not going to lie to you and I'm even considering a sequel but WE WILL SEE! It's basically all planned out, kind of, kind of. The length of it is kind of dependent on where I want to stop. Coz I'm not sure if I want to tie up this case and then stop it or just carry on going and not rush things?

Right, I'm tired and I have work tomorrow and I really want to start writing chapter 8 but I really can't because sleep and omg I think my laundry is done how exciting.

The next one will almost certainly not be here in four days. BUT WE SHALL SEE, hehe. See you soon xx


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